


Kitty Cats & Ballet Shoes (Marichat May 2019)

by LeSwanSong



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Marichat, Marichat May, Possible Romance IDK, Thief AU, dance au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-03-05 21:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 64,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18836743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeSwanSong/pseuds/LeSwanSong
Summary: Marinette is a Ballet Student, Chat Noir is a Theif. They bump into each other and now Marinette is stuck helping him steal.





	1. Day One: No Powers

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry its late just got caught up in Life. I used day ones prompt to set up the story.

 

Marinette chalked her ballet shoe’s and waited stage side for her name to be called, she anxiously bounced in place, every little noise was magnified with her tightened senses. She tried to calm herself down, singing a little tune counting to one hundred, nothing seemed to work. The solo she was about to perform replayed itself in her head, she was relying on it to win her the lead role, this was everything she had been working towards since the young age of twelve. She had had lead roles in other productions before but this… this was a major role, this was for the chance to play _‘Clara’_  in the Christmas production. Marinette wanted this role, she wanted it more than anything else in the world.

 

Her eyes flicked down to her shoes, she groaned and walked back over to chalk her shoes again, her constant movement had shaken her last dusting off. 

 

She held her breath but let it go when someone else’s name was called, she rolled her eyes in boredom, they landed on the huge shadow being cast on the ceiling, she traced it to the source only to find nothing there but she knew someone was there she could feel their eyes. She kept her eyes train on the spot in where she thought the person was as she slowly backed away from the stage, her footfalls were silent as she climbed the steps towards them. She intended to cut them off in the hall leading to the dressing rooms but they caught her first, strong arms wrapped their way around her waist, she let out a yelp in surprise and one of the hands flew up to her mouth silencing her. 

 

She struggled, kicking her legs and pushing on the arms in an attempt to free herself but the person's grip was tight and didn’t budge. Marinette couldn’t deny how terrified she felt in that moment, she tried to bite the gloved leather fingers around her mouth as he dragged her down the hall to a small broom closet. She fought to stay out of that room but he was stronger, her pointed shoes collided with the wooden door frame and she pushed against it trying to send her attacker into the shelving on the wall behind them, he let out a grunt when he collided. Her fighting back didn’t deter him, it just made him hold onto her a lot tighter. Her heart raced, she was panicking, she was about to die that's what her mind screamed. If by some odd chance she survived, she tried to commit everything about him to memory, his gloves and jacket was some sort of leather it didn’t feel like the real leather, his zipper on that ‘leather’ jacket was round and made of metal, it jingled every time she brushed against it in her struggle. He stunk of camembert cheese and there was also a slight hint of aftershave. 

 

Something sharp dug into her sides, she whimpered at the sudden pain, he seemed to notice that and release his grip on her slightly. She used that to her advantage and stopped her struggle against him and he loosened his grip even more, he let go of her waist to try and close the door and she elbowed him in the side feeling bone collide with bone, he sucked in air through gritted teeth in pain. She pushed against him clambering for the door, her attacker recovered quickly, cut her off and slammed the door in front of her. She screamed when the room was plunged into darkness, his hand instantly found her mouth again and her screams were muffled. 

 

Her back met a cold bricked wall of the small broom closet, tears fell freely down her face, she was now truly trapped and the moment she accepted that she felt herself ease. Her breathing levelled out and her heart rate slowed back to its normal speed, she stopped fighting and relinquished control, she became limp in the stranger's arms. His hand was removed from her mouth, the temptation to scream had long since died, she stayed perfectly still using the shelving to her left to support her weight.

 

“Well aren’t you a pretty one,” his voice was surprisingly sweet, “how did you see me up in the rafters?”

 

“What do you want?” she asked getting straight to the point and ignoring his question.

 

“ _’Le Grande Gazelle Blanche.’_ ”

 

The name rang a bell, “the necklace?” she queried.

 

“Yep,” he replied popping the ‘p’, “the one and only, do you know where they keep it?”

 

She rolled her eyes, “why would I know?”

 

He chuckled, “A pretty ballerina like you-“ a gloved finger ran across her jawline, she shivered in disgust, “-most certainly knows.”

 

She rolled her eyes again, of course, he thought flirting with her would get him somewhere but boy was he wrong, “try again,” she replied, “I’m a student, there is no way they would let me see that thing and besides you and I know it only comes out once a year for Christmas and the last time I checked Christmas is six months away.”

 

“A smart ballerina too,” he commented.

 

“Anything else?” she snapped.

 

“All work and no play for you.”

 

“What do you want,” she repeated.

 

“Nothing.”

 

“Then why am I still trapped in a broom cupboard,” she asked raising an eyebrow.

 

He let out a small laugh, “how about I ask the questions hmm?”

 

She sighed and reluctantly nodded her head.

 

“Have you seen my face?” he asked.

 

She frowned at his question but shook her head forgetting they were in complete darkness, she opened her mouth to say no but he spoke first.

 

“Good, then I don’t see why we can’t come to an arrangement.”

 

“And that is?”

 

“I let you leave here unharmed and you-“ his hands found themselves on the wall beside her, “-you tell no one about our little chat.”

 

“And if I don’t.”

 

“Then my little ballerina, you may just find yourself in quite a lot of trouble.”

 

“Is-Is that a threat,” she stuttered.

 

“Yes, yes it is, now do we have a deal?”

 

She paused to think it through, she swallowed the ball of saliva that had built up in her mouth. Closing her eyes she nodded her head once again forgetting that he couldn’t see her in the dark room.

 

“Good, now keep your eyes closed and count to twenty, when you open them I shall be gone and you can go back to try out for that role you want,” his feet shuffle across the room towards the door, “and sorry my ballerina but you sadly won’t get that role. Start counting,” he commanded.

 

She bit back her anger at his words but followed his command, “1… 2… 3… 4…”

 

Her ears picked up on the sound of the wooden door being opened, she continued her counting out loud, he had paused at the door, her mind told her it was to get one last look at her before walking out and closing the door behind him.

 

“9… 10… 11…” she slowly stopped her counting.

 

Her hands felt along the wall heading towards the door looking for the light switch, light flooded the room revealing the mess her struggle had caused. She sighed and her eyes fell onto her tutu, it had been ripped and bent in ways that she had never thought possible, it was ruined. Her hair that had once been tied in a neat bun was most likely a mess now with strands of it falling down onto her face. A few tears dripped down her face as she set about fixing the mess she had caused, the strangers words stuck with her, it had crushed her to hear such words and sadly some small part of her believed them, no, she couldn’t think like that, her ripped outfit could easily be fixed with one trip to her small dressing room.

 

Marinette picked up the last mop and lent it against the wall. She opened the door and peaked out onto the corridor to find it completely empty so she stepped out into it. She quickly slipped her pointed shoes off and ran down the hall towards her dressing room.

 

She pressed her back against her closed wooden dressing room door, it was if she had just locked out all the noise and self-doubt. Her mind was free to process what had just happened to her, she pulled her spare skirt out of the wardrobe and replaced the ripped one she was wearing for it. She wondered if she should tell her dance teacher about the strange man, the turn woman was someone that wouldn’t believe her but it was worth a shot. Marinette fixed her hair tucking the loose strands back into the tight bun, she reapplied the small amount of makeup she had originally put on and ran back to the stage. She hoped no one had noticed that she had been gone for the five to ten minutes it had taken her to return, she re-chalked her pointed shoes. Something within her told her to look back up to the spot she had originally seen the stranger, he was back up there watching her, she ignored him to wait only for her name not to be called. 

 

The judges congratulated everyone then disappeared out of the seated audience to discuss their choices on who would play the lead role.

 

Marinette never felt so angry before, she had never missed an audition before and the one time she did it was because she let her stupid curiosity get the better of her. She kept her composure all the way up until she closed the door of her dressing room, angrily she pulled off her pointe shoes and tossed them into her gym bag along with everything else she didn’t need. She ripped her jacket out of her bag and pulled it over her arms, it was going to be a cold walk back to her small two bedroom apartment but she reckoned her anger would keep her warm enough for her to reach home. 

 

She avoided the other auditioners gazes as she exited the opera house, she kept her head buried in her phone. Alya, her best friend, had spammed her phone with text messages trying to find out if she had gotten the role, Marinette spared the girl all of the details and just told her that she didn’t get it, she swore that sometimes Alya was more upset at her not getting roles than she was at times.

 

Marinette put on her best smile to try and distract herself from the crushing disappear within, her anger had mostly subsided, she was still most definitely pissed at the stranger but she more pissed at herself. Her ex, Luka, had described her as a roller coaster of emotions, it had its highs and lows, its twists and turns and at times was unpredictable and went off the rails at times. Her mind wandered back to the guitarist, if she had the strength she would kick and scream at herself for even think of him after what had happened but right now she didn’t have the mental fortitude to argue with herself. She allowed herself to get wrapped up in the warm rose coloured glasses of the past, memories of time spent on his families houseboat and her own parents bakery, she smiled as the many times he snuck into her old dance studio with flowers flooded back to her, she couldn’t deny how much she missed him.

 

Slipping the key into the lock she opened the door to her apartment, she flicked the light on and stared at the dreary apartment she called home, she sighed in disgust and slammed the door shut behind her. Throwing her gym bag onto her sofa she made her way to her small kitchenette, the cheap bottle of wine she had bought the night before sat on the counter, she had originally bought in to celebrate whether she won or not but right now she felt like downing the entire bottle. She peeled the cheap plastic seal off and twisted it open, she didn’t bother with letting it breathe or with a glass. Marinette never liked the taste of cheap wine but it was all she could afford, she downed a quarter of the bottle in one go not caring about alcohol poisoning. 

 

She sat down in front of her small blank tv, she hated how her life had turned out, she had expected to be a lot further along in her dancing career and not where she was right now. She had believed every little lie her dance instructors had told her, companies would do anything to hire her, the usual lies they told a twelve-year-old girl so that her parents would continue to pay for the lessons, how could she be so gullible. 

 

She downed another mouth full of wine, she didn’t drink often so she already felt the buzz, reluctantly she put the lid on the bottle. Although heartbroken she still was a struggling dance student and needed to be on time for an 8 am class. She placed the half drunk bottle of wine back on the kitchen countertop as she passed by it to her bedroom. She tossed the clothes she was wearing aside before slipping into her cold lonely double bed. The springs creaked as she settled onto the uncomfortable mattress, she looked at the time on her phone one last time before tossing it across the room onto a stray pile of clothing.


	2. Day Two: Greek AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a long one so buckle up.

    Adrien sat high above the theatre seating, he scanned the swarm of ballerina’s trying to find the one with the midnight blue hair and deep bluebell eyes. He smiled when he found her standing at the back of the crowd. He felt sorry for the way he had treated her the previous week; under normal circumstances, he would have let her pass but he knew she had seen him in his perch so he had pulled her into the closest room he could see. He didn’t mean to scare her it was only after he went home and laid down to get some sleep did he realize how petrified she might have been in that moment. He wanted to apologize to her but knew that if he ran into her again she would be even more terrified and to make things worse she sadly hadn’t gotten any roles in the Production she was auditioning for but at least she bounced back quickly.

 

    He had never heard of this production maybe it was because it was actually an opera instead of a ballet. His mother never liked the opera so he had never seen one maybe this would be a good place to start. Pulling out the small flyer that was in his pocket, the name of the production was in bold letters across the top with a brief explanation of the plot, it was only a temporary flyer but it did the job. He would have to look into it when he got home.

 

    He tried to pull his eyes off the girl as she started her dance but he failed, his eyes were glued to her through every leap and twirl she made. Although she had a background role he could see she was putting her heart and soul into each and every move, he started to really hate what he had done to her in that moment. He pulled his eyes off of her and it seemed to break the trance she had put him inn he leapt across the metal crosswalks that the stage lights sat on, they swayed slightly from the movement but no one bellow was able to see him moving across them. Slowly he descended down the metal steps to an empty backstage, everyone was on the stage but he still checked to see if anyone was there he definitely didn’t want a repeat of the last time.

 

     Adrien quickly made his way through the building heading to an area less travelled by members of the cast and crew. He knew exactly what he was looking for, a locked door hidden among all the dressing room doors because that was where the safe was hidden. The girl had been right _‘Le Grande Gazelle Blanche’_ did only come out at Christmas for the yearly production of The Nut Cracker but he knew of another time, one less known to the public. Once a year a gala was held for the dance company to show off their latest cast for the role of ‘Clara’ to the members of the rich and elite and to also rub it into the other dance companies.

 

    Finding the corridor he was looking for he turned off the lights to it plunging it into his preferred darkness, slowly walking down the corridor he tried every door, they all opened apart from one, the door he was looking for. He smirked to himself and forced the door open only to be confronted with the sight of a dressing room, it confused him, he left the light off, his night vision made everything as light as day. He slowly tipped toed around the room inspecting the contents, he started to suspect that his information was wrong and he was in the place but it didn’t hurt to look.

 

    His eyes scanned the room looking for somewhere a safe could be hidden, the necklace wouldn’t be their yet but he needed to scope the safe out, he went straight for a large painting on the wall, it was a little cliché but that was where people usually hid safes his father included. He pulled it aside only to find a blank wall behind it, he sighed, things could never be that easy for him. He headed over to the wardrobe, throwing open the doors he pushed and pulled at the small amount of clothing it contained to get a better look at the back of it, the safe wasn’t there and he accidentally slammed the door shut in slight frustration. He looked around the room one last time for any place the safe could be, there was a curtain covering a wall in the corner to the right of the door, it was oddly placed in the small room, he was already walking towards it so he pushed the curtain aside revealing a small safe. It was much small than the one he was looking for but turning back at the torn apart room he might as well check it.

 

    His fingers tingled at the words used to summon his destructive ability, pressing his palm to the steel door, it crumbled beneath his touch and soon was a small pile of black dust on the floor. He shook his hand to get rid of any remaining dust left on his hands, he reached in and pulled out a small collection of letters, they were (if the dates were correct) at least eighty years old, he skimmed through them, he tried to hide the smile slowly spreading across his face the more he read the sweet words the receivers lover had written. His heart warmed as he read the last letter then placed them back into their home, he reached in one last time to make sure there was nothing left in there he had missed, his fingers brushed against a small wooden box, he pulled it from the dark and dusty hole to a larger dusty room. The square box held no design or pattern it was plain and simple, it was most likely a gift to the recipient of the letters. He opened it to reveal a set of earrings, the design resembled that of a Ladybug, he closed it and quickly pocketed it, what for he didn’t know, he just did.

 

    He turned to leave only to be blinded by the room filling with light, stumbling back in shock he let out a short hiss when tripped and stumbled eventually collided with the floor. The sound of someone giggling reached his ears, he mused on how sweet it sounded, he forced his eyes open to try and adjust them to the blinding light, he blinked his vision straight and she came into view. He could see the small beads of sweat that had formed across her forehead from her rehearsal. He smiled up at her with his usual dopey grin, it was her, her midnight hair had once again fallen from her tight bun, her costume was in better condition maybe because it was a loosely styled toga and not a tutu that was easily crushed against a wall. The girl instantly seemed to realize that there was a strange masked man in her very small dressing room, she backed away from him tripping on some of the clothing he had pulled out of the wardrobe, Adrien rose to his feet and walked over to her holding his hand out to help her back onto her feet.

 

    “It’s nice to see you again ma petite ballerine.”

     

    Her eyes grew wide in shock, he suddenly realized his mistake and all the color drained from his face. She pushed herself into a corner in an attempt to get away from him, he tried to take a step towards her but saw her visibly cower as he got closer, he paused, it hurt him the way she was acting but it all made sense he did push her up against the wall after she escaped his grasp.

 

    “I’m- I’m sorry, I know how this might seem like I’m stalking you but I swear I’m not… I promise.”

 

    She swallowed, still petrified she responded, “I don’t believe you.”

 

    He inhaled trying to find some way to prove to her that he wasn’t actually stalking her, he allowed his mind to say the first thing that popped into his head, “I- I know we’ve run into each other twice now and each time has been a terrifying experience of you but I swear this isn’t what it looks like.”

 

“You’re in my locked dressing room…” her voice wobbled over the words.

 

    “I-“ he racked his head for some way to respond, “Miss if you let me explain I-“

 

    “Marinette,” she winced realizing her mistake.

 

    He smiled, “that’s a pretty name,” he commented, “I’m going to shut the door,” he announced to her, “that way we can talk, okay?

 

    She froze when he stepped back towards the door, he stopped in his tracks and waited for her to give him some kind of sign that he could proceed with his plan, her eyes were transfixed on the door.

 

    “Marinette?” he queried, her eyes moved from the door to him then back to the door, “may I close the door?”

 

    She looked back towards him and then slowly nodded her head, he smiled at her as he backed away. Adrien stuck his head out into the hall quickly checking it for people, there were a few people down the hall but they were too far away to notice him, he shut the door and turned back to her slowly helping her to her feet so she could sit on her roller chair in front of her dressing tables mirror.

 

    “So,” he asked moving in front of her, “I only have a few minutes but I’ll try to answer your questions.”

 

    Marinette muttered something beyond his range of hearing.

 

    “Sorry, I- I didn’t hear that.”

 

    She sighed, “What are-“ she groaned, “What’s your name?”

 

    He smiled, “Chat Noir.”

 

    “Right… What were you looking for?” she gestured to the rest of the room, he winced at the sight.

 

    “Sorry My-“ he pondered whether or not to tell her, “My info was off, I was told the… item… I was looking for was hidden in this room,” he explained, he was apparently going to be telling her the truth.

 

    “And I thought I told you that Christmas was months away,” she snapped back.

 

    He opened his mouth to respond only to be interrupted by the loud beeping coming from his ring, he groaned, “I’ll… be back.”

 

    He stepped out into the now empty corridor and as soon as he heard the door click into place behind him he took off running looking for the broom closet he had pulled Marinette into the week prior, he knew it was just down a small flight of stairs. He threw the door open and slammed his back against it to close it, he looked down at his ring a single paw print remained on the ring, he sighed and released his transformation. He tried to catch his breath, he truly thought he had more time and didn’t mean to cut it so close, he patted the walls beside him and eventually found the light switch, the light replaced the dark within the room.

 

    His Kwami, Plagg, let out a yawn, Adrien dug around in his bag for the small plastic container he had filled with Plagg’s cheese. The Kwami didn’t wait for Adrien to open it, he phased through it and started happily munching on the camembert cheese within. He sighed and placed the container on the shelf in front of him, waiting for Plagg to finish eating was the most painful and slowest thing in the world, he looked around the room in boredom clicking his tongue to pass the time.

 

    He tried to keep his mind away from Marinette, the horrible feeling of the way he had accidentally scared her stuck with him, nothing could shake the feeling in his gut. Plagg shot him a sympathetic look through the plastic walls, it was funny how in sync they were at times, Plagg seemed to know when he was spiraling into a deep pit of regret and could easily pull him out of it with a look.

 

    Deciding that Plagg had had more than enough time to eat his share of cheese, he picked up the container to see Plagg shove the last bite of cheese into his mouth, Adrien was kind enough to let him swallow that last piece before re-calling his transformation. The black suit reappeared over his everyday clothes, his suit felt like a second home with how much time he spent in it. His eyes readjusted to the enhanced vision, the scent of the cleaning products assaulted his overly sensitive nose. Marinette’s sweet floral perfume had helped combat the stench the last time he was in that small room, pinching his nose to try and block out the painful smell he fumbled for the door. Stepping out into the corridor he breathed in although not fresh air it was a lot better than the chemical filled one, he filled his lungs again then started down the hall and back up the stairs to Marinette.

 

    He knocked on the dressing room door before opening it, he looked around wildly at the room, it had been restored to its previous neat and tidy originally state, he was only gone for two to three minutes, how had she cleaned it up so quickly.

 

    “Hi…”

 

    She looked up at him in the refection of the small mirror, “Hi… Are- Are you okay?” the concern was evident in her voice.

 

    “Oh- yeah I’m… fine, I’ll explain later.”

 

    “Oh…”

 

    “Where were we?” He asked.

 

    “I- Uh- The necklace I think?”

 

    He tried thinking back to their conversation before he had to leave abruptly, “right…”

 

    “I think I told you that Christmas was months away… I don’t remember,” she mused trying to actually remember what she had said to him.

 

    “Well, I’m sorry for tearing your dressing room apart.”

 

    “What made you think the necklace was here if I remember correctly they transport the necklace from its secure vault for the production.”

     

    “Yes… but it gets taken out of its vault for something else and has even less security.

 

    “And how do you know about this ‘secret’ outing?”

 

    He smirked, “that is me for to know and for you to never find out.”

 

    “You said you would answer any of my questions and this is one of the questions.”

 

    He groaned, damn she was good, she was really going to get him to spill his whole plan. “Do I have to?”

 

    “If you don’t want anyone to find out you were here then yes.”

 

    “Fine…” If he was going to tell her he might as well tell her the entire story, “the necklace is taken out of its secure vault twice a year, one you know of-“

 

    “The Nutcracker.”

 

    He nodded his head, “Yes the Nutcracker and for an extremely exclusive gala held for the rich and powerful, the company uses it to show off their cast for ‘Clara’ and since the auditions were last week the gala should be held in the next two to three weeks.”

 

    “And you want to steal it before the gala?”

 

    He nodded his head again, “can’t steal it at Christmas, it’s to well-guarded. Can’t steal it from its vault cause that's a death wish. Can’t steal it at the gala because of all the eyes and because there is only a small pool of people the police need to look at and I don’t want to narrow… that… list…” He slowly cut off his sentence, he didn’t want to drag her any further than he had already had into his pit of lies and thievery.

 

    “You were saying?” she asked with an eyebrow raised.

     

    “I- I-“ he stuttered, “I can’t tell you that, I’m trying to keep you out of this… life.”

 

    “I can protect myself,” she angrily replied crossing her arms.

 

    He chuckled looking down at his feet, “I never said you couldn’t,” a faint dull pain resurfaced in his side from where she had elbowed him the week prior, he most definitely did not want to end up in a situation where he was up against her again.

 

    “Why do you want the necklace?”

 

    The question he had been waiting for her to ask all night, why, why did he want a rare and beautiful necklace all for himself.

 

    He looked up at her and smiled, “that is something I sadly can’t tell you that, sorry Marinette,” he took a step away from her to lean up against a wall.

 

    “What… What if I help you?”

 

    “Marinette, I can’t- I don’t think you can.”

     

    “Please,” she begged.

 

    He shut his eyes and sighed, “Why? what has this place done to you.”

 

    She chuckled, “It's not this place but the people within.”

 

    “And what have these… terrible people done to you.”

 

    “Well,” she started, “One pushed me into a tiny broom closet,” he froze and immediately went to apologize again for his actions, she stopped him with the wave of her hand, “Chat, I was kidding,” he tried to laugh it off but couldn’t find it in him, “Sorry, Chat I didn’t mean-“

 

    “It’s okay, just…”

 

    “I was never actually called for my audition for the role of ‘Clara’, I thought I had just missed my name being called in the mere moments I was…” she trailed off, Adrien knew where her mind had wandered off to because he had wandered off their too, “I found out later that a girl who had auditioned for it had paid off the judges so that I wouldn’t be called,” she continued, “that girl has had it out for me ever since I was nine and sadly I think she got the part.”

 

    The story sounded believable but something in him told him it was a lie, he tried to shake it but it followed him around like a bad smell, he was cautious in his response, “And you want some revenge?”

 

    She nodded her head.

 

    He shut his eyes not believing that he was even considering letting her into a plan that had taken several months to even get to this point, “Marinette I- I need to think this through and you have to understand, you… helping me, if you get caught its major jail time.”

 

    “I understand.”

 

    “I don’t think you do, getting caught is something that I have to constantly be aware of, that's why I shoved you into that… If you and I were ever caught together you would be under heavy scrutiny for everything that I have done.”

 

    Marinette stood up from her seat and turned to face him, she kicked the swivel chair she had been sitting in over to him for him to sit down, he frowned in confusion until she lifted herself up onto her dressing room table, she motioned for him to sit down on the chair, he sighed but followed her command.

 

    “I understand all that I just…” she started to explain, “the girl and this other girl have had it out for me for a very long time and honestly I really just want some payback. Chloe… I know right now that she definitely got the part, for the last few days she hasn’t stopped talking about that stupid necklace.”

 

    Adrien nodded his head along to her words.

 

    “Chloe’s hatred for me started when we were around nine, this was before I started to ballet professionally, I used to dance in many different styles,” she clarified, “There was this play, I can’t even remember if it was a play but Chloe and I auditioned for it and I ended up getting the lead and she was my understudy. I seem to remember that I didn’t really want that role but that's beside the point, Chloe has held this hatred for me getting a role she wanted against me for about-“ she quickly did some simple math’s on her fingers, “Ten years I think? but Chloe she has to know that I’ve wanted the role of ‘Clara’ since forever but now… I’m stuck in this stupid background character in this silly Creek play.”

 

    He could feel the anger in her voice with the last comment, he didn’t interrupt as she tried to regain her composure, her bright red anger filled cheeks slowly returned to their normal tanned white shade.

 

    “Sorry,” she apologized, “I just…”

 

    He reached out placing a hand on her lap, “Wanna talk about it?”

 

    She slowly shook her head, “No, just- I needed the money, I was banking on some sort of role in… I didn’t want to do this production, I’ve been doing small roles like this one since I started here and I just wanted something new.”

 

    “Tell me about this production,” he wanted to try and move the conversation away from the sensitive topic long enough for her to calm down.

 

    “Huh?”

 

    “The… I don’t know what it is I’ve only seen one or two rehearsals, tell me what it's about.”

 

    “It’s about the Greek Gods,” she clarified, “I… I haven’t been paying too much attention to it, I’ve been trying to get the dances down first and I usually only find out what the production is about when it’s opening night or If I’m lucky a full dress rehearsal without any problems.”

 

    “Wow… you mentioned another girl?”

 

    “Oh yeah… Lila,” she replied, “She is… Something else, Chloe is like the only other person that doesn’t believe her which is surprising I thought they would get along like a house on fire.”

 

    “What’s so bad about her?” he asked confused.

 

    “Lila or ‘Liela’ according to Chloe, it’s not a very creative name but it gets the point across.”

 

    “How bad-“ he tried to ask but found himself cut off.

 

    “Bad,” she replied, “Really bad, most of her lies are actually believable which makes it worse, those unfortunate few that aren’t accustomed to her are more likely to believe her, I… I almost believed her but something didn’t sit right. I confronted her about it, told her basically that she didn’t need to lie to have or make friends, I also told her something along the lines of stop or I’ll tell everyone, she told me to keep my mouth shut and just accept it, I said no and she been ‘trying’ to destroy me since.”

 

    “Wow…” he said in shock, “your life is a lot more exciting than mine,” he joked, a huge grin was plastered across his face.

     

    Marinette picked up the stuffed animal on the desk beside her and threw it at him, he raised his arms to block her attack, the animal bounced off and found its way onto the floor, he picked it up and brushed off the small amount of dirt on it. He smiled at the blue plastic cat eyes of a ginger cat, he handed it back to her and she placed it back on the desk beside her.

 

    “This Chloe, may I have her full name?”

 

    Names were a powerful thing to Adrien, Marinette strongly believed that this girl would be the one to play‘Clara’and if true having a head start might be a good idea.

 

    “Chloe Bourgeois and Lila Rossi,” Marinette replied without a second thought.

     

    “Bourgeois? The mayor's daughter?” he pretended to be surprised but with his complete knowledge of her, Chloe could no longer do anything to surprise him.

 

    “The one and only.”

 

    “Great.”

 

    “How is that Great?” she asked.

 

    “She’ll want her dress to be perfect for the gala if she does get the role which means she’ll want to see the necklace.”

 

    “So you’re going to stalk her?” Marinette stated in disbelief.

 

    He laughed and slowly shook his head, “stalk is a strong word Marinette, it’s more like ‘follow her movements very closely from the comfort of my own home to be sure’ while you stalk her around set.”

 

    “What!?!”

 

    “You wanted to help so I’m giving you something to do.”

 

    “But I…”

 

    “Follow her around set, you’ll know if she has been cast because they’ll pull her out of rehearsals or training, they’ll have fewer eyes out in the corridor and there aren’t that many guards well guarding it because hardly anyone knows,” he explained to her, he was really giving her a job that he would normally be doing, it was a small job and if she was really setting him up it wouldn’t reveal much of his plan to the authorities.

 

    “How do you know? I’m not putting my career on the line for some shoddy information.”

 

    That part was also true, she was putting her career on the line if she really was helping him. He really hated at that moment not knowing whether or not she could be trusted, he had been a lone cat for so long and really wanted someone else to share the load with him.

 

    “I got one of the people transporting it last year drunk in a bar, he could not hold his liquor well and all the other little details I got out of him that night checked out,” he stated bluntly.

 

    Marinette raised her eyebrows and his response, she quickly moved past it, “And when she is called, what do I do then?”

 

    “You got a phone?” He asked holding his hand out.

 

    Marinette got up and went to her gym bag pulling out all of her spare clothes to get to the bottom of the bag quicker. She fished it out and passed it over her shoulder to him, taking it from her he opened it, ’no password’ he mentally noted saving it for later, he quickly added his personal number instead of his burner, he looked at the odds of her ever getting his number and found the odds in his favor, he also didn’t always carry his burner with him and this was the kind of information he needed on demand. It was a stupid idea to give her his actual number but one he felt like he needed to do.

 

    “If she gets called out of class, rehearsal or anything, even if it's a false alarm call or text that number, even if it’s not Chloe and its someone else,” he explained to her handing back the phone.

 

    “That's it?” she queried.

 

    “For now, just text something to that number beforehand so that I know it's you.”

 

    “You often hand out your number to girls,” she teased.

 

    “Only you,” he teased back, “But no, sadly my work means I get random calls and texts from people to hire me.”

 

    “A thief for hire?” she questioned.

 

    He shook his head, “A thief only at night but honest work during the day.”

 

    Marinette tried her best to fight back a yawn at the moment.

 

    Adrien took this as his cue to leave, “you best head home, we’ll talk… later, okay?”

 

    She sleepily nodded her head and picked up her newly repacked gym bag. He opened the dressing room door for her and turned the light off behind them, he whispered a quick goodbye to her and headed straight for the roof, he scanned the streets below waiting for her to step out onto the street, it was late and he knew the dangers the night could bring for someone alone. He kept his distance, he wasn’t following her home just making sure that she reached it okay. Her walk was extremely boring, his eyes followed her up to her second-floor apartment, a light flicked on and her gym bag went sailing across the room eventually hitting a wall, he chuckled at the sight and she fell onto her sofa, she was home he told himself and he turned towards home, he had had a busy day and he was tired and Plagg was most likely tired too.


	3. Day Three: Kittens

    Marinette did all the research she could, a quick google search gave her almost all the information she needed. Chat Noir, somewhat famous jewel thief with a ten thousand euro reward for any information that led to his capture. News reports stated that Chat Noir had eluded capture many times, escaped from several of the police traps, snuck past million dollar alarm systems. He preferred to steal rare and unique pieces of jewellery, what happened to them afterwards no one knew because there was no trace of them ever being re-sold. Alya would be able to help her more but she really did not want to get her friend involved in such a delicate situation, maybe down the line once she was sure she had Chat Noir’s full trust then she could.

 

    She wanted to tell someone. Alya, she loved her best friend but if she sent her a simple text like ‘Hey just met a jewel thief, how was your day?’ Alya would drop everything and fly back to France just to be on her doorstep the next morning to bombard her with questions, she would then try and catch Chat Noir herself, sometimes Alya didn’t know where to stop. She considered telling the police or even her teachers well… they wouldn’t be able to do anything, they only thing they could do was send the necklace back to its incredibly secure vault and then nobody would be able to see it, they would never let it out of its vault every again and The Nutcracker would lose its star attraction.

 

    In the forty years that it had appeared in the production there were only a handful of photos of it so nobody knew exactly what it looked like, the only thing Marinette remembered about it was the way the stage lights bounced off of it when she was six. From the few photos and description online the necklace was small and when worn sat like a choker. It was made up of small white diamonds ranging from four to six karats all octagonal but what made the necklace so special was a rare 50 carat flawless pear-shaped pink diamond. Marinette fell in love with the necklace with only the description, there was no way she was going to let Chat steal it, the necklace deserved to be seen by the world not locked away.

 

    Marinette was surprised Chat Noir bought her little story about revenge but even more surprised when he gave her something to do, she just needed to-

 

    “Marinette!”

 

    She snapped back to the real world, the entire cast was staring at her, she was missing something. Her eyes scanned the group, the opera singer standing in front of her all dressed up in her Athena costume, the other ballerinas in starting positions… Oh right, the ballet, quickly she entered her own starting position behind the opera singer playing Zeus.

 

    Madame Aonso had an unorthodox way of teaching group dances to her ballerina’s, she preferred to have everyone together after about a week of teaching everybody the steps so she could see who was falling behind. she was like a mother hen to everyone but a fox to those that didn’t put the effort in, she was Marinette’s favourite instructor and had helped her get many of her previous small roles. The music started and Marinette waited for her cue before allowing her body to go through the hours of meticulous practice.

 

    Marinette’s mind wandered back to the thief as she danced, he had texted a lot over the past few days, she tried to keep her distance from him but he was persistent, reluctantly and begrudgingly she gave in if only to earn a little more of his trust. His acted so… normal which threw her off, she had expected him to rarely text her and only ask if she had heard anything about The Nutcracker but no he asked about her day, sent her funny little bits of information and the strange people he bumped into. Slowly she learned a little bit about his life and it was interesting because it was so very different from hers. She twirled around a final time completing the dance.

 

    Madame nodded her head, “Again!” she yelled.

 

    Marinette bowed and shuffled back to her starting position, her eyes flicked up to the catwalk above her, he was up there leaning over the balustrade, bitting back a groan she started to dance again trying to push him as far as she could from her mind but that was impossible.

 

    “Stop!”

 

    She froze mid-step and only just managed to stop herself from stumbling over her own feet, Madame Aonso stepped up onto the stage and a feeling of dread bubbled up to the surface, she knew what was about to happen.

 

    “You,” the woman’s turn voice boomed, she was pointing to a girl three down from Marinette, “dismissed,” tears fell freely from the girl's eyes and soon she was bawling her eyes out. The girl covered her eyes with her hands and ran from the stage disappearing out of sight.

 

    Marinette’s heart broke for the girl, she looked new to the stage and this was most likely her first production but Madame Aonso’s word was law and if you were dismissed, you would quickly find that your role had been filled by someone else willing to put the time and effort in.

 

    “Marinette!” Aonso practically yelled.

 

    Marinette stepped forward out of formation, her eyes were fully focused on the teacher, their eyes meet and she held her breath.

 

    “You’re free to go.”

 

    Relief washed over her, she bowed her head and exited the stage. She looked up at the catwalk before she headed down the corridor to her small dressing room, it was empty which meant Chat Noir was already in her dressing room, taking a deep breath to mentally prepare herself. 

 

    She was really looking forward to having some time for herself but now that was off the table, she pushed open the door to her dressing room, Chat had his back to her looking down into something on her dressing table, she checked the hall then gently shut the door locking the two within. Curiously she walked over to him to see what had captivated his gaze, the corner of a large cardboard box slowly came into view. She frowned as she was a little confused as to why he would bring a cardboard box with him.

 

    “Chat? Why did you-“ she moved to stand beside him.

 

    “You weren’t answering my messages and I- I couldn’t leave them outside, I’m sorry I-“

 

    She drowned out his apologises as she stared into the box, she hated herself on the spot because she could feel herself growing attached to the small litter of kittens. It was a problem she had always had, her poor parents had to deal with her constantly bringing home stray dogs, cats and the occasional bird.

 

    “Chat… Please tell me you checked to see if their mother around before removing them from-“ He cut her off before she could finish.

 

    “I did,” he assured him, “there was a lid on the box too and I’ll spare you the details on where I found them.”

 

    She nodded her head in relief and reached in to pick up the only calico kitten out of the box. It looked barely over a month old, the kitten let out a small cry in her hands so she quickly put it back in with its siblings. Marinette looked at them one last time before letting out a sigh, years of her bringing home strays had taught her a lot and right now she knew there was no way that she wasn’t going to be able to keep them, they were too young to survive without their mother so they had to be taken to a vet. 

 

    Chat was going to hate that they had to go to a vet, the caring look he was giving the kittens said it all but he had to know.

 

    “Chat… they need-“

 

    “No.”

 

    “Chat if they don’t they-“

 

    “I said no.”

 

    Why did he have to be so stubborn, she needed to get them to a vet, didn’t he understand that they won’t- ugh!.

 

    “Chat, please,” she begged to try to get him to understand.

 

    “I won’t see them again if they go,” a tear formed in the corner of his green cat-like eyes, she felt sorry to do this to him.

 

    He wiggled his finger around in the box for a grey kitten that was trying to attack them, it was a cute sight.

 

    “Chat… I need to take them…”

 

    He reluctantly removed his fingers from the box and gently slid it across the small dresser to her, it was light in her hands, she adjusted her grip so that she was supporting its base. 

 

    She turned to the door but Chat’s gloved hand suddenly being placed on her arm, “Marinette.”

 

    “Yes?”

 

    “Text me when… when they-“

 

    She gave him a small reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, they’ll be okay.”

 

    He smiled back at her trying to hide the pain behind it. 

 

    Pausing in front of the door she looked down at the doorknob and back at the box in her hands, she tried to adjust the way she was holding the box but it was too large to fix under her arm.

 

    Chat let out a laugh behind her, she guessed it must have been a funny sight, “here I’ll help you,” he offered, taking the box from her, “you need your gym bag too.”

 

    “And I need to change my shoe’s,” she remembered staring down at her pointed shoes still on her feet.

 

    “That too.”

 

    She sighed and fell into her chair untying the ribbons that kept the shoes in place. Chat kicked over her gym bag for her, reaching in she dug out her old crappy white sneakers and then slipped them on to her still wrapped feet.

 

    “I-“ Chat started.

 

    She looked up at him, her fingers continued to tie her shoes, “what?”

 

    “Your- Your feet,” he stuttered.

 

    She looked down at them, sometimes she forgot that people didn’t know how much of a beating her feet went through while she danced, “you’ve never seen a ballet dancers feet before have you?”

 

    He shook his head in response, “No, are- are you okay?”

 

    She gave him a soft smile, “I’m fine thank you for your concern.”

 

    “Are they normally like that?”

 

    “Comes with the territory,” she explained.

 

    “Does it hurt?”

 

    “A little,” she replied tying the final knot, “But I’m fine,” she said again trying to reassure him. She flung her gym bag over her shoulders, her ballet shoes were neatly stored away in it. Chat continued to stare blankly down at her shoes, “Chat?”

 

    “Hmm?”

 

    “I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” she told him while trying to slowly remove the box from his hands, he reluctantly handed it to her.

 

    He didn’t seem to believe her but opened the door for her. She smiled at him again it was the only thing she could think of to not make it awkward between them as he started to escort her down the halls of the opera house.

 

    There weren’t any people in the halls because they were all in a dance class or rehearsal but that didn’t stop Marinette from looking over her shoulders in concern.

 

    “Marinette stop worrying, we’ll be fine.”

 

    “And what happens if someone sees you?”

 

    “I’m in costume,” he replied with a shrug.

 

    She nodded her head, it was a believable lie.

 

    From the few meetings and messages she had received from him he had struck her as a kind-hearted person, she wondered what had driven him to thievery. She would have to tell the police about him, that he was planning on stealing a priceless necklace but she didn’t have to tell them right now did she? His steal toed boots echoed off the bricked walls around her and lots of questions floated around in her head at that moment, questions she could just ask the masked man beside her but was too scared to pipe up, she wanted to know why he stole, what did he want the necklace and what was it all for, so many unanswered questions.

 

    She stepped out onto the Paris streets, glancing behind her she found Chat wasn’t there, she didn’t hear him say goodbye or his boots leave her but then again she was self-absorbed in her own head and wasn’t exactly paying attention to the world around her. A massive gust of wind hit her and she set down and tugged on a thin jacket that had been in her gym bag, it would give her some relief from the cold, she also pulled out a spare shirt and placed it in the box with the kittens, they were immediately crawling and curling up in its warmth. Pulling her phone out of her pocket she googled for the nearest veterinarian clinic finding one six blocks away. She sighed, it was a little further than she wanted to go but it was the only one open at the time, placing her phone in the box so she could see the directions she picked up the box and headed down the street.

 

    The sound of metal hitting what she thought was brick reached her ears, she looked to the rooftop for the source finding nothing, she frowned but kept moving forward towards her destination, the feeling of being watched stuck with her. She shook her head, she was overreacting over a small noise nobody was following her, they would have to be extremely good to at parkour to follow her plus in some places they would have to make some impossible leaps and bounds just to continue following her, it would much easier to follow her on the streets below.

 

    Marinette pushed against the glass door with her shoulder to enter the clinic. The small waiting room was mostly empty apart from the receptionist and an older gentleman with a parrot sitting happily on his shoulder. She shut her eyes and sighed, opening them again she walked up to the reception desk and set the box down on the floor beside her.

 

    “Do you have an appointment? the receptionist asked.

 

    “No, I have some kitten’s their mother was a stray in my neighbour and she, unfortunately, got run over a yesterday morning, I knew that she had kittens and I just found them and I-“ she nervously explained.

 

    She couldn’t believe that she was lying for Chat Noir right now, that no good thief had somehow managed to get her to lie, the one thing she hated doing. Ugh! Why was she lying?

 

    The receptionist passed up a clipboard with paperwork that she needed to fill in, “Name, Address, Phone number, leave out what you don’t know and I’ll help you fill that in.

 

    Marinette picked up a pen on a string and filled in her information she reached the field dedicated to her ‘pet,’ she was tempted to ask the receptionist how she was supposed to fill in this field but one look at the litter at her feet and her heart melted. They were all curled up against each other on the red long sleeved shirt she had put in, it was official she was just as attached as Chat was to them. She smiled and filled in as much as she could about them and handed it back. The receptionist quickly typed up the new information on the page.

 

    “Someone should be with you in a moment.”

 

    Marinette picked up the box and headed over to the seated area picking a seat on the other side away from the older man, she really didn’t feel like talking to the older gentleman. She sat down and quickly her phone was in hand, she sent a text to Alya telling her that she would be late to their weekly scheduled Skype call, Alya responded in mere seconds telling her it was okay and to message her when she got home. Her phone constantly dinged with panicked messages from Chat, she bit her lip unsure of how to respond so she eventually settled on ignoring him until after she had seen the vet but he eventually won, the constant chiming from her was slowly driving her crazy, she pulled the box up onto her lap and holding the phone steady she snapped a picture and sent it to him to try and earn a minute of peace. The messages stopped and Marinette leaned back in her chair letting out a sigh in relief, happy with the silence.

 

    “Marinette?” a woman asked.

 

    She looked over her shoulder in the direction of the voice, the woman was dressed in a magenta hospital garb, Marinette picked up the box and followed the woman into the sterile room.


	4. Day Four: Birthday

   Adrien flicked through the photo’s on his phone, Marinette had been able to keep the box full of kittens, how she managed that she didn’t say, no amount of asking had been able to loosen her lips. The kittens were just old enough to survive without their mother, he had gone back to the trash-filled alleyway several times to try and find the mother cat but he had no such luck, he truly believed that they were dumped there and it broke his fragile heart. So with him not being able to find the mother cat and he already knew that he couldn’t take care of the kittens with his father’s strict… ness… (there was no way they were going to fly under the radar. Marinette had adopted them and now he awoke each morning to early morning texts from her with pictures attached of the kittens. 

  
   He looked up to see a newly hired maid enter the room with his lunch, he smiled at her and she nervously placed the tray in front of him on the large mahogany table. She removed the silver cloche off of the top of the plate and left leaving him with a really depressing looking salad, somedays he wished for the taste of something fatty like that of deep fried fries and a pepperoni pizza. He slowly picked up his fork and got stuck into eating his sad lunch.

  
   He stared over at the manila he had brought down with him. It was full of all of the necessary research he needed to memorise by the end of the week, he stood up and peaked his head around the doors to find Natalie in her seat, he returned to his own seat and opened the folder and started reviewing the files within. His eyes traced the corridors on the small map in his hands trying his best to try and commit it to memory, the map had been a gift from Marinette to say sorry for not allowing him to see the kittens straight after she had brought them home but he had seen them recently. 

  
   He had passed her small top floor apartment by accident on his way to some ‘business’ appointment and recognised the building, he paused on one of her window sills and looked into the apartment, the kittens had been locked in a medium sized dog cage that had been completely padded down to high heaven with blankets, he had laughed at the sight of the tiny terrors in such a highly padded area. He sadly waved goodbye to them and headed on his way.  
   Adrien shook his head he needed to focus, he ran his fingers across the page, the gala was less than a week away and he had yet to locate the necklace. 

Marinette had unfortunately not found out who had been cast in the main role, he was a little disappointed but had taken the time to look into everyone who had auditioned for the role, Marinette had been kind enough to steal the list for him. He smirked at the thought of Marinette sneaking around in the corridor and making sure that no one was around before pulling the pin holding the paper to the pinboard then sneaking back into the shadows.

  
   Marinette… He started to see holes in her stories, they were easy to ignore at first but then, then they weren’t. He wanted to believe her he really did but because of his line of work, he had to look into her so he became very well acquainted with every aspect of her life. And one of the side-effects of this was stalking her social media accounts, he learned all of her friend's names and he was very interested in her best friend, she was an investigative reporter and that was dangerous, very dangerous, he really needed to keep his distance. 

  
   The sound of heels echoing off the walls sharply pulled him from his concerned thoughts, he quickly packed away everything in its folder and placed it on his lap just in time for Natalie to walk into the dining room, he smiled his trying to act like he was happy to see her, his eyes fell upon the tray in her hands, his curiosity was peaked. She placed it in front of him, the silver cloche on top of it hid its contents from view, he pushed the last bite of the band salad into his mouth and shuffled the plate behind the tray. 

  
   “Your father has asked me to wish you a happy birthday Adrien on his behalf,” her voice was her usual cold business voice as she removed the cloche revealing a small cupcake and a familiar box. 

  
   He frowned, ‘birthday?’ His birthday was still days away. He went to ask Natalie for clarification but she had already left, her heels clicked louder on the marble floors the further she walked away. Confused he pulled his phone from his pocket to check the date, his eyes widened as he was proven wrong, he was so caught up with planning the perfect heist that he had lost track of the date. He laughed slightly to himself, he had never lost track of the date before. Removing the folder from his lap he pulled the map back out and started to refocus on it to continue his planning, he picked up the cupcake and stuck it in his mouth, it tasted like a cheap supermarket bought one but it got rid of the taste of ice burg lettuce. The Gala… wait… the gala was less than a week away… and he was pretty sure the date was his birthday. He picked up the box containing the same pen he got every year along with his folder and rushed up the steps to his oversized room. Tossing the folder onto his queen bed he tore open his desk drawer and ruffled around in it pulling out stray pieces of paper just to find the one he was looking for. Finally, he felt the cardstock of the invite, he carefully reread it until his eyes fell upon the date and a sigh erupted from him, he had gotten the month wrong he still had time to find the safe. 

    
   Adrien fell back onto his bed, the overwhelming feeling of wanting to see Marinette washed over him but he didn’t want to overstep his boundaries and he was supposed to be distancing himself from her. She was realistically his only friend. Chloe was… a friend he had grown distant within the past two years, his ‘work’ always got in the way of their hangout times and she was spending a lot more time at the studio because of it. 

  
   He pulled his phone from his pocket and opened his text messages the little line to start typing flashed on screen, he really wanted to text her but what, he drafted a message and subsequently deleted it for another draft that also ended up being deleted. He stared at the blank screen as he struggled to express himself through words to her, eventually he tossed his phone aside giving up on trying to message her. He stretched his arm out across his bed and stared up at the white ceiling waiting for something to happen, he felt alone in that moment, the silence ate away at his head, he groaned and sat up he needed to keep his mind busy so he went back to planning.

    
   He looked through the very long list of rooms he had yet to search, it was a daunting task, over four hundred rooms and unless he found any more information to narrow down the list, they all needed to search. Maybe he could try and talk to one of the guards at the opera house, if he remembered correctly, liked to hang around some extremely exclusive wine tasting venues but sadly he could never get in, fortunately being a rich fashion designers son and former model had its pro’s at times, maybe it was this. 

  
   Adrien often wondered what he was doing this all for, Master Fu had been very kind to him over the years, it started when he tried going to a public school for the fifth and final time, he gave up that chance and all the planning that he had put into sneaking out of the house just to help the old man up and Master Fu had felt sorry and had given him Plagg. After a year of having Plagg he was finally drafted into the stealing side of Master Fu’s business, he was given a small set of rings to steal from some safes here and there, mainly to test his skills and after he had succeeded in stealing them all without being caught and without the assistance of the suit, Master Fu tasked him with stealing The Dove Miraculous from a wealthy man in America that just so happened to be coming to Paris on a business trip. 

    
   Adrien planned that heist meticulously down to the very last detail, he really didn’t want to be seen or caught. He practised breaking in and out of safes for an entire month before he struck and nobody noticed it was gone until the mans’ last night in Paris and by that time he was long gone and planning his next target. 

  
   But what happened to the magical jewellery afterwards he could not say, he just continued his new employment because the thrill was worth the risk. 

  
   His phone buzzed beside him and as he continued to question his life choices lifted the phone to see the notification, a new message from Marinette stared back at him, he clicked on it and a photo of the very happy kittens greeted him, smiling he typed back his response, temptation ate through him and before he knew it he had sent her a text if he could come over and see her, her not the kittens, he had meant to delete that text and rephrase it. He anxiously tapped his foot waiting to be turned down and not for their… friendship? whatever they were not to be ended but… he shot up, he hadn’t been expecting… well, that…

    
   “Kid? Are you… Okay?” 

  
   The Kwami was suddenly hovering over his shoulder and let out a scoff. 

  
   “Kid I thought she had figured you out and not well… sent you her address.”

    
   He shot up, ignoring his Kwami’s words, he was already reaching for a jacket and heading towards his window, his mind was several streets away in Marinette’s small living room telling jokes that made her laugh out loud, a goofy grin was plastered across his face. Plagg tried protesting, telling him that he should keep his distance from her but his daydreams blocked him out, he said his transformation phrase and soon his feet were carrying him across the tiled rooftops. 

  
   He racked his knuckles against one of the windows to her Apartment trying to contain his nerves. She looked a little confused to him at the window and not the front door, she hugged her shoulders at tried to pull the window up to open it, she struggled as the window had become jammed since the last time she had opened it. Slowly she managed to open it an inch and with his help, they pushed the window open. 

  
   “You could have used the front door,” she grumbled as she clenched and unclenched her fingers to try and get some sort of feeling back into them. 

  
   “Sorry, I- I didn’t think it’d be a good idea if I was seen,” he explained.

    
   “Its- never mind, just taking my anger out at you, sorry.” 

  
   He smiled at her, “it's okay, I get it,” his eyes scanned the small living room looking for the small trouble makers, “so… Where are they?” 

  
   She giggled and pointed over to a small corner of her living room, he frowned at her but walked over in that direction, the basket they were in had been obstructed by the back of her grey sofa. He almost ran towards them, they had grown quite a lot since the last time he saw them, he had expected them to grow but not this much. He sat cross-legged on the floor and scooped up two kittens into his arms leaving two grey ones left in the fabric basket. 

  
   “Chat?” 

  
   “Hmm?” 

  
   The calico kitten he had picked up clawed its way into the crook of his neck.

    
   “Are you okay? your message it-“ 

  
   “I’m okay Marinette,” he assured her, “today was just one of those days I didn’t want to be alone.” 

  
   “Why?” 

  
   He shrugged his shoulders at her, “I just didn’t want to be alone.” 

  
   “Okay then…” she didn’t sound like she believed him, “I have to go to the dance studio into hours so we don’t have much time to do something… what do you want to do?” 

  
   “Not sure,” he stated as he pretended not to see all the small collection of gaming consoles and controllers on the tall bookcase beside him. 

  
   “Did you bring any off-“ 

  
   He shook his head not wanting to remember the number of things he still needed to plan, there was so much left up to chance. 

  
   “Oh… Okay,” she sounded a little surprised that he hadn’t brought anything to do with the necklace. The sofa creaked behind him as she sat down on it, “Are you any good at Mecha Strike?” 

  
   He smirked, “You have no idea what you’re up against.” 

  
   “Really?” she teased, “I’m pretty sure you don’t know what you’re up against.” 

    
   “Someone as small as you… I’m pretty sure I’ll win.” 

  
   “You’re going down,” she threatened to pick up her controller and subsequently turned on the controller. 

  
   He smiled at finally having some competition. Gently he placed the grey and white kitten that had curled up in his arm back in the basket with its siblings, he then tried to remove the calico on his shoulder but it dug its delicate claws into him in protest and wouldn’t budge from its spot, he eventually gave up and left it to sleep. 

    
   He picked up the spare controller that Marinette had put on the coffee table for him and slowly backed his way up to her, he decided to go easy on her, it had been a while since he had played and when Marinette managed to defeat him round after round he thought it was just beginners luck but he quickly realised Marinette’s skill and his first assessment was wrong. He turned up his skill in an attempt to even the playing field but he was a lot more out of practice than he thought but she just up the ante to stay on top. Adrien had never found someone to match his skill before, he was really enjoying himself, it had been years since he had enjoyed video games. 

  
   The pause screen suddenly appeared in the middle of his button smashing, he spun around confused at why Marinette would pause the game. 

  
   “You’re quite good,” Marinette stated, “But I have to go,” she stood up and stretched. 

  
   “Right the dance studio,” he reached up and gave the kitten a scratch, “it been a while since I’ve had any decent competition,” he stated putting the controller on the coffee table in front of him. 

  
   “You should meet my papa, he’s even better than me.” 

  
   “Is that an invite I hear?” he was obviously joking.

    
   She smiled and shook her head, “You should probably get going,” she looked down at her watch. 

  
   He nodded his head and reached back up to the kitten on his shoulder slowly pulling it off of him, it let out a soft mew in protest of being disturbed, it broke his heart to move the small kitten but he did and he placed it back in with its brothers and sisters. 

  
   “Thank you Marinette,” he told her standing in front of the open window, “you made my birthday a less boring one,” his hands met the window frame as he prepared to pull himself up through it. 

  
   Marinette’s hand shot out to hold his arm causing him to stop in his tracks.

    
   He turned back to face her, “I’m fine Marinette,” he promised. 

  
   She gave his arm a final squeeze before letting it go, she opened her mouth to say something but something in her decide against it. He turned back to the window and lifted himself out through the small opening, he waved goodbye to her and headed home happy with his newfound friendship. 


	5. Day Five: Cooking/Baking

   Birthday… It had been his birthday. Marinette felt like shit for not pushing him further to tell her why he wanted to see her, granted telling him her dress was her best idea in the world and she hadn’t been paying attention when she sent it but the fact he hadn’t said anything about it until he was leaving hurt her. Now she felt like she owed him and that wasn’t a good thing, she hated owing people so here she was walking home with several bags full of the cheapest being supplies she could buy. The bags were heavy but she had no other option but walk the twelve blocks home, she was disappointed that her wallet wouldn’t allow her to but the ingredients she actually wanted, she could have saved her wallet by sneaking over to her childhood home and borrowing them but she wanted to be an adult and pay for everything herself.

 

   Every few blocks a clink of metal hitting roof-tiles reached her ears, she tried to find the source each and every time she heard it, swearing she was imagining it when she couldn’t find it. She couldn’t pause long to actively search because her arms were starting to give her hell for carrying such heavy bags and the closer she got to home the more they ached, she barely had the strength to open her own front door. She placed down the bags in her right hand to feel around in her purse for her keys and grounded when she couldn’t feel them or hear them in her bag, of course, she had left them on her kitchen counter. Defeatedly she placed her forehead against her old wooden front door trying to ignore the aching pain in her left hand.

 

   “Need some help ma petite ballerina?”

 

   Marinette jumped in surprise not expecting to hear his voice behind her, she spun on her heel to face him.

 

   “Chat?”

 

   “Who else would it be? You seem… Defeated…”

 

   “I left my keys inside… again…” she grumbled still angry with herself.

 

   “Cheer up Princess because I just happen to be a world-class thief and a door shouldn’t be any trouble.”

 

   “I… I don’t know how I feel about you breaking into my apartment.”

 

   “You wound me, it’ll only take me a minute,” he replied.

 

   He reached up into her hair and pulled the bobby pin that was holding a strand of hair in place from her head, her free hand went flying up to where it once sat, he held it up for her to see, reluctantly she backed away from the door.

 

   “Just… Don’t break the lock.”

 

   “Really Princess you’re trying to wound my ego even more,” he joked.

 

   She shook her head in response to his playful attitude.

 

   Chat quickly got to work on opening her front door and with a flick of his wrist, he turned the heavy doorknob and pushed open the door.

 

   She smiled at him and reached down for the bags she had put down.

 

   “I’ve got them,” he told her and he reached down for it, “you head inside.”

 

   Shrugging her shoulders she headed inside and placed the bags down on her small laminate countertop. Her keys were just where she left them, beside the stove, she frowned and got straight into putting her shopping away in their rightful places. Chat put the rest of the bags down on her small round dining table as well as a manila folder on her countertop, she tilted her head at it but didn’t voice her quires to him. He pulled out items from the bags and looked around confused at her cupboards, giggling she took the bag of sugar from him and pulled down a plastic container from a higher shelf of a cupboard.

 

   “Pour,” she commanded.

 

   “Yes, Boss.”

 

   Slowly she put the rest of the items away apart from the ingredients she needed to cook her own dinner and make a medium size cake. She set about making the cake first tossing aside her original plan of giving it to him as a surprise. She lit her oven to heat it up, she cracked a few eggs and beat them into flour and cocoa powder as well as melted butter. Chat kept his confused gaze on her the entire time she whisked the ingredients together, she smirked at him but didn’t let him in on what she was making.

 

   “What are you doing?” he finally asked.

 

   “A cake,” she replied, “wanna help?”

 

   He enthusiastically nodded his head.

 

   She moved aside and handed him the wooden spoon so he could continue mixing the ingredients together while she prepared the pan for it.

 

   “I’ve… I haven’t baked a cake since I was like 5.”

 

   “Its something I do every other weekend.”

 

   “Sounds like fun but I… I need your help with something,” he gestured over to the folder, “I need you to label the rooms for me. It doesn’t have to be exact but enough so  I know what rooms are what.”

 

   She walked around to the opposite side of the counter to where the folder sat, she opened it and pulled out the largest file, unfolding it revealed blueprints of the opera house, she stared at it in amazement it had to be well over two hundred years old.

 

   “Is… Is this an original?”

 

   “No photocopied so you could draw on it, the original I have at home.”

 

   “How did you get your paws on an original?”

 

   “Rich friends,” he shrugged.

 

   “You can pour that into the pan,” she instructed and he did as she asked.

 

   Her eyes went back to the blueprints, so many hidden passageways were displayed on it, she knew of a few but seeing them all was enlightening. 

 

   “My pen… it's near the microwave,” she said not looking up from the paper, Chat reached over the counter to hand it to her, “thank you.”

 

   “What do you want me to do with…”

 

   “Oven, be careful it's pretty hot.”

 

   “Ouch!”

 

   “Told you,” she called over back over her shoulder.

 

   She returned to the map and started to write down what each room was for him, some were pretty hard to remember but eventually, they came back to her.

 

   “Anything else you want me to do?”

 

   “Label what room the safe is in,” he quipped.

 

   Marinette pondered his joke question. She had only ever known of one safe and that one had been turned to a nice pile of black ash, she scanned the rooms on the map trying to pin down where she would hide a safe to keep something of great importance out of a would-be thief's hands. 

 

   The easiest way was to find where all the cameras were in the building and narrow it down that way, they would want cameras to cover the entry and exit into the room but there were well over one hundred cameras in the backstage areas. The door would also be locked, you wouldn’t want some lost guest wondering into the room and Marinette knew only of a few doors that had more than just one lock on them. Her eyes tracked down the halls of the opera house to its lower levels where the kept the old props, there were locks on them, why? she didn’t know why but now she had a rough idea why.

 

   She argued with herself on whether she should tell him. Not telling him would help ensure the necklace would stay safe and out of his hands until he went looking for it down in the basement but telling him… Telling him would grant her more of his trust. Marinette hadn’t known Chat for long but he struck her as the kind of person to not budge from something he had set his mind on, she didn’t doubt that Chat would search all four hundred plus rooms just for the necklace.

 

   “Marinette?”

 

   “Hmm?” her eyes met his cat-like ones.

 

   “You… You okay? You’ve been staring at that map for quite a while.”

 

   “I’m fine,” she replied trying to assure him.

 

   “Why are you making a cake?” He asked quickly changing the subject.

 

   “Well… I- you… the other day, I-“

 

   “You’re… making this for me?”

 

   She sighed and reluctantly nodded her head, “yeah…”

 

   “Marinette… that sweet of you but you didn’t have to.”

 

   “I felt like I did,” she mumbled.

 

   “Marinette playing Mecha with you was enough for me.”

 

   “Okay I get it I’m over thinking it just eat the cake when it's done,” she snapped back bitterly. She hated how he was being so nice why couldn’t he be that threatening figure that had haunted her a few weeks ago and that all the trouble she had gone through to make something for him had been literally for nothing.

 

   “Hey calm down I’m sorry. Thank you for making a cake for me, I really appreciate it,” he apologised, “hey did you want to play Mecha again.”

 

   She smiled at him but shook her head, she looked around the room for where she had set down her purse, pushing herself off the countertop and snatched it off the dining table. She pulled out her small sketchbook opening it to a blank page, slowly she started to outline a design for a cake.

 

   “Wow…”

 

   She smirked at his reaction, “My parents are bakers,” she explained. He nodded his head along, “I used to design the cakes for them in my spare time, it was a lot of fun and I haven’t done it in a while but you don’t want to hear about that I’m guessing you came over for more than a map being labelled.”

 

   “Yeah… I- You’re not going to like it but I have a favour I need you to do Ma Ballerine. I don’t know how to put this… the production you’re in, I… Uhh- I need you to sabotage it…”

 

   “No,” it was a straight answer, there was no way in hell she was going to do as he asked.

 

   She had grown very close with all of her cast members and doing what he had just asked her would ruin her friendship with them, they were like family to her.

 

   “I need the focus off of the Christmas production for-“ 

 

   He tried to explain his plan to her but she angrily shook her head, “No,” her voice was calm, “I’m not doing that, If someone finds out it's me it’ll ruin my career.”

 

   “Marinette please listen-“

 

   “No.”

 

   “Marin-“

 

   Marinette couldn’t stop her fiery temper, “Get. Out,” she commanded, articulating each word, he took a step away from her but didn’t listen, “Get Out Chat,” she yelled.

 

   The thief backed his way to the door and left in silence, she stared daggers into her now shut front door. Yelling at him wasn’t the best idea but the aftermath wouldn’t have been pretty for him. She huffed and started to clean up the mess that came with making a cake in anger, cleaning always calmed her mind. Her anger caved and the wave of regret washed her way, she really felt bad for yelling at him how was he supposed to know what a production meant for her but asking her to sabotage it was… well stupid. 

 

   The smell of burning cake ultimately snapped her away from her death stare at her front door and into action, she pulled the cake out to inspect the damage. the exterior was burnt but she could easily cover that up with icing, which reminded her that she better get started with it. She put the cake on a cooling rack and placed it on an empty shelf in her fridge, ripped the design from her sketchbook, then started mixing the ingredients to a chocolate recipe long ingrained into her head. Her phone rang and buzzed behind her, she ignored it to focus on mixing her ingredients. It rang again and she groaned wishing that the person would stop but they didn’t, the phone kept on ringing.

 

   She dumped the wooden spoon into the bowel and picked up her phone, Chat’s contact info stared back at her, she rolled her eyes and swallowed her pride and answered it. A wall of apologises came her way, she couldn’t get a word in to stop him, patiently she waited for him to stop. He took a deep breath and the other end fell silent.

 

   “Chat? Are you okay?” she asked him.

 

   “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he apologised.

 

   “Don’t be, I- I overreacted, come back and I’ll explain… Please?”

 

   “I- I left my folder… I- I’d be honoured if you let me come back.”

 

   “An honour? This place? Really Chat, I live here and can see that this place is a dump.”

 

   “Fine, can I still-“

 

   “Yes…” She replied dragging out the word out, “You can come back.”

 

   “Thank you,” he replied just before ending the call.

 

   She smiled and returned back to the mixing bowl but she couldn’t stop her self from looking over to the manila folder still on her countertop. Her fingers inched towards it and eventually, she gave in and opened it pulling out the thick pile of paperwork from within, her eyes felt over the words not trying to commit any of them to memory until one word caught her attention. She pulled it from the middle of the stack and read the page even more carefully. Names of guards, pictures of them, their schedules and routes they took patrolling the building, there was a lot of sensitive information on the page. Another page held details of camera positions and what type they were, how Chat found this out was curious, she really wanted to know who his sources were. He was meticulous in his researching, the page about the security camera’s even told her what voltage they worked at.

 

   The knocking at her door made her jump, “Marinette?”

 

   “Oh no no no,” she mumbled under her breath.

 

   Frantically she picked up the pages and stuffed them carefully back into the folder, she didn’t want Chat to know she had been snooping, it was only after she had put them all into the folder did she realise her sketch wasn’t on the counter anymore, wide-eyed she stared at the folder.

 

   More knocking came from her front door.

 

   “Just a minute!” she called back.

 

   “I can’t wait Marinette!” his voice was urgent on the other side.

 

   Marinette groaned and ran open to the front door, Chat smiled back at her but the only thing she could think of was how screwed she was.


	6. Day Six: Adoption/Family

   Adrien started out at the opera house, his Kwami, Plagg, had gone ahead to disable all of the cameras for him and to make sure there were no surprises in store. He pulled out his binoculars and scanned the many windows in his eye line looking for signs of life but just as he suspected there were none, the building was practically empty. Smiling he packed the binoculars away and waited for Plagg to return.

 

   His plans were simple tonight, he was just going in and inspecting a room on the lower levels, there were guards but he wasn’t too worried, they were most likely there just to make sure no one unauthorised got into the backstage area’s and were not intended to stop a highly trained thief from scoping the place out. Adrien cast his mind back to the Map he had gotten Marinette to label, some rooms stood out but he had already checked them all previously and were honest mistakes by her but one room stood out a small prop storage room. The original map he had had labelled it as a joint dressing room, it could have been changed in the hundred or so years since but something about that room seemed… off and he had been itching to get out of the house so he might as well check it before sneaking over to Master Fu’s and besides prop storage rooms were infamous for having some hidden gems in them.

 

   Normally he would only take the item he was there for but the police had grown far too close for his liking. After flirting with the receptionist while trying to report his ‘prized’ car missing from its parking spot, he managed to get a little information and with that information he had been able to get himself into the police servers, he had access to everything the police knew about him. He had been sloppier than he first thought and they were on to him, they even had a list of his next possible targets but he had quickly edited that leading them down the wrong trail and off of his tail for long enough that he could absconder the prized jewels he was after but that meant changing his tactics so for now it was stealing more than one object if he wanted to continue.

 

   The light buzzing of his phone reminded him that his life as Chat Noir was only a side job. His fathers assistants contact lit up the screen, there were a number of reasons as to why she was calling, the pile of unfiled paperwork still sitting on the dining room table, the fact that he was missing dinner or the fact that he had turned off his GPS before heading out knowing that his father liked to constantly know where he was. Sighing and not really wanting to deal with his father's overprotective attitude at that moment he held down the power button on his phone silencing it leaving him with only the sounds on the busy street below. 

 

   He hated how his father barely saw him as a son or barely even saw him, Gabriel hadn’t even been bothered to exit his office to have dinner with him for over two months. It hurt Adrien to admit that his father only saw him as an employee and that he was treated as such but eventually he did, he felt sorry for his younger self for having to deal with all the constant demands he tried to fulfil for his father in hopes to bring back the faintest feeling of family. 

 

   He was happy with himself for one thing though. A few months back he started calling his father by his first name, his reasoning was the fact that the man hadn’t acted like his father or even treated Adrien like a son in years. His most recent happiest memory of Gabriel was the first time he called him by his first name in front of him, Natalie had grown used to it as he had started it a few weeks earlier but Adrien couldn’t get over the shock, anger then sadness that the man’s face expressed in a mere thirty-seconds, it was the most emotion he had seen in his father in years. Plagg had loved the idea and Adrien finally understood the Kwami’s hatred towards the man.

 

   But recently Adrien wanted another way to spite his ever distant father. The idea of packing his things and moving out had drifted around in his head ever since he snuck his way into Marinette’s tiny apartment and he wanted what she had… A place to call his own and moving out… There was nothing else in the world that would spite Gabriel even more. The man would essentially lose all control over Adrien and Adrien loved the idea and so would Plagg although he wasn’t exactly the best person(?) to ask.

 

   “Kid?”

 

   He jumped, he hadn’t expected Plagg to be back already.

 

   “You better not change the plan kid,” the Kwami warned, “The cameras will be down for about an hour which means-“

 

   “Increased patrol routes, I know Plagg we’ve done this all before with no problem.”

 

   “Yeah but this time you’ve brought a cute girl into the picture.”

 

   Adrien shook his head at Plagg's bitter comment. No matter how many times he had told the cat that Marinette wasn’t going to be a problem he still brought up what ifs and seconded guessed everything he tried to do even if it was just texting the girl. Marinette was his friend and at times felt like she was his only friend and Plagg didn’t seem to understand that. At times he wished he had actually sought her out as Adrien but he was stuck with her ever knowing him as Chat Noir for now.

 

   “Plagg? How do you feel about moving out of the Mansion?” He asked trying to move off the uncomfortable rift that was the subject of Marinette.

 

   A huge grin spread across the Kwami’s face telling Adrien all he needed to know. 

 

   “We’ll talk about this later,” he told Plagg and the Kwami nodded his head.

 

   He transformed and frowned at the odd weight on his back, he reached around pulling a grappling hook off of his back. Plagg was always added more weapons and gadgets to the suit for Adrien to play around with. He smirked at the sight of it, he had told Plagg that he had no idea on how to get over to the building unseen now that the building he was using originally had recently been covered in scaffolding in preparation for some up and coming construction work and he couldn’t use it anymore because of all the camera’s and security guards that were crawling over it. Pole vaulting across was out of the question, the streets below were far too wide and busy, he would be seen instantly and using his baton as a tight rope and walking across it was far to slow and risky.

 

   He inspected the grappling hook it had a retracting mechanism which was handy and a simple metal hook at the other end. He took a good length of rope and swung it a few times to tested how heavy the hook was before he sent it sailing over to the opera house. It hooked itself between a small pillar and another pillar, he cheered silently at the fact he had gotten it first time. Adrien gave it a sharp tug to make sure it was stuck and looked down at the street below and waited for the light to turn red and all the cars had stopped before taking a leap of faith and jumping off the building, he pressed the retract button almost instantly, it worked extremely fast, too fast even, he was halfway through his swing when he suddenly felt the cold hard impact of the brick exterior wall of the opera house.

 

   He groaned and painfully sucked in air through his teeth, this was not the start he had been expecting. Slowly he climbed the tall wall up to the roof, he dare not use the grappling hook for anything more than a guide up the wall. Carefully he hoisted himself up onto the roof, he laid down on his back and stared up at the cloudless sky above him, his eyes watered slightly at the ungodly amount of pain he was in at that moment. Gently he pressed down on his chest to count his ribs, he needed to make sure they were all still in place.

 

   “One rib, Two ribs…”

 

   He continued to count all twenty-four. None had broken clean through but he suspected that there would be a few cracked as well as a bruised lung, it would take Plagg several hours even days to heal the damage. He sighed and pain shot through him, he bit back a cough and as soon as he got his breathing back under control he forced himself to stand. On shaky legs he hobbled over to the door that was always left unlocked, he extended his baton to the hight of a bow staff and started using it as an extremely tall walking stick. He didn’t bother picking up the grappling hook, it would disappear when he detransfomed and the extra weight would only cause him more pain.

 

   He placed his hand on the doorknob and twisted it pushing open the loud squeaky door that led to a staircase. Adrien took a deep breath and although his lung and chest protested slowly started to descend the steep steps until they ended on the floor dedicated to small dance studios. The soft sound of music filled his ears, he kicked himself into stealth mode, already he had wasted too much time but he really didn’t want to leave anything up to chance in his weakened state so he followed it down the hall to try and find the source. His heart rate was slightly elevated due to not factoring in the chance that someone would be there and Plagg hadn’t picked up on them so now he had to know even if he didn’t know what he was going to do when he found them, probably nothing but he still had to know who was there and why.

 

   His fingers picked up on the vibration of the studio speakers through the wall the closer he got, his ears even picked up of the soft humming of a woman's’ voice, it reminded him of his mother and how she used to hum when she was trying to remember her lines for filming the next day. Carefully he peeked around the corner, Marinette had her eyes closed as she and a guy he had never seen before went through the steps of a dance, the guy would mess up and they would reset. Adrien held back the growl that threatened to erupt from the back of his throat, he didn’t know how to describe what he was feeling in that moment. Earlier that day he had felt betrayed by her when he found her pencil sketch in with all of his paperwork, the only way it could have gotten there was if she was snooping.

 

   He watched bitterly as she jumped into the man’s arms, he wanted nothing more than to pull her from his arms and into his own. Somehow he found the strength to pull his eyes from her and back to his original goal.

 

   He tried to keep his footsteps silent as he descended down the staircase leading to the lower floors but that was an impossible task, they echoed and bounced off the stairwell walls. He got turned around in the hallways as his mind was still on the black haired girl a few floors up but eventually he found the door he was looking for and just as he suspected, locked. 

 

   Smiling he pulled out his lock picks and the door swung open. The room on the other side was an organised mess, props were displayed in glass display cases and safes adorned the walls. He was surprised at how easy the room was to find, this had to be a new record for him. Slowly he walked around the room taking all of the sights, the room was something he wished he could have, everything had its place in the room. A light layer of dust covered everything meaning no one had been in the room for a while, so he had to be extra careful not to touch anything he didn’t need to. He rounded the room twice before stopping in front of the large safe he was looking for, a gazelle was engraved in the door and it was old, extremely old which meant that it would be easy for him to crack and very expensive for them to change the code every day so they most likely only used one code a year or two at most.

 

   The necklace wouldn’t be in it yet but that wouldn’t stop him from familiarising himself with the safe. He pulled his small pencil and note pad from the small tool belt around his waist, Plagg only added it to the suit when they were heisting or casing a place. Adrien got comfortable in front of the safe and started slowly turning the dial, his cat ears picked up on the little ticking of the dial being turned until he heard a bigger tick which normally meant he had gotten the right number, he wrote it down then started on the next number until he couldn’t hear any more small ticks. His hand moved to the handle and gently he pushed down on the handle and pulled. The door came loose from its frame granting him access to its contents. He pushed himself to stand, the adrenaline in him dulled the aching pain in his chest and he was greeted with a glorious sight. 

 

   A tiara sat at eye level in a glass box, he inspected the diamonds that adorned it, they were easily worth a couple thousand. Shrinking his baton he scanned the crown recreating a digital copy before he moved onto the set of earrings on the lowest shelf, the diamonds in it were small and not worth as much as the tiara but he still mapped it. He took a few photo’s of them both before he shut the safe door, they were something to keep in mind when he stole the necklace. He double checked the code he had written down to make sure it was the correct one before he slowly climbed the steps back up to his exit route.

 

   His chest screamed at him to sit back down but he ignored it to try and climb the steps back up to the floors above. Going down the steps was a lot easier than going up, his chest burned at each stepped, he paused every three to four steps just to catch his breath, eventually, he reached the top floor, the floor that housed the dressing rooms. He struggled to keep his suddenly extremely tired eyes open but even then that didn’t seem to stop them from closing, his back found the old plaster walls and he slowly slid down it until he met the floor, it hurt to do so but he really wanted to sit down.

 

   Huffing and puffing from being short of breath his eyes slowly shut but his head tried to protest, he told himself that it was a dangerous place to sit and rest when there were still people around but he was so tired that he now couldn’t find the strength to move. Eventually, his breathing levelled out to a slower, more manageable pace and the pain was slightly dulled when compared to his now aching arm, he wasn’t used to supporting most of his weight on it. He felt parts of himself fall asleep, first was his legs then his arms, not even the gentle patter of someone's feet could wake him.

 

   “Chat?” The woman’s voice was distant but soft, his eyes struggled to focus on her. “Are you okay?” she was concerned, he could hear it in her voice.

 

   “I’m fine,” he tried to say but his words came out slurred.

 

   “You don’t look it,” she replied, “here let me help you.”

 

   “I’m fine,” he tried to argue but she ignored him and wrapped an arm around him, he let out a painful groan as she helped him to his feet but didn’t stop her.

 

   He didn’t recognise where he was being led as he phased in and out of consciousness. Time flew past quickly, he was led down a hall, he saw street lights and heard car horns to his left, he stopped for a few minutes then he was walking again, he was leant up against a strong brick wall as keys jingled into a lock, his back collided with the hard seat of a sofa. He groaned and grunted at the painful impact, a slew of apologises came fluttering out of the woman, he wanted to laugh but the threat of constant movement and pain made him decide not to.

 

   “Get some sleep,” the woman’s honey voice commanded.

 

   He couldn’t find it in himself to argue with her and finally he accepted sleep, he drifted off feeling safe and at home on the uncomfortable sofa.


	7. Day Seven: Roommates

    Sipping her warm coffee Marinette smiled down at the still sleeping thief on her white sofa, his breathing was strained and muffled, she couldn’t hold back her concern but there was nothing she could do until he woke up. Finding him in the halls falling asleep was a shock to her, he had always been so careful with who saw him and by the pale look in his face, something bad had happened to him. She couldn’t find it in herself to leave him there and the fact that her dance partner Leon was only a few minutes behind her forced her to act quickly.

 

   Checking her phone for the time she started to make breakfast for him. She grabbed her mother’s small recipe book because she could never remember when to add the cinnamon. She tried to keep the noise down as she started to mix in all the ingredients but she accidentally knocked a plastic cup off the counter. Wincing and looked over to Chat he shifted a little but didn’t wake up. Letting out a sigh of relief she picked up the cup and returned to her cooking, placing a pan down on the stove top, she buttered it and slowly brought the heat up under it when a sharp painful grown reached her ears.

 

   She glanced over, Chat was trying and failing to sit up, her hands reached for the stove dial and turned it off.

 

   “Chat wait!” she yelled trying to wash the excess butter off of her hands, “Lay down please.”

 

   He ignored her and continued to try and sit up, she groaned and dumped the tea towel she was using to dry her hands on the countertop and ran to him. She held herself back so she wouldn’t knock anything off of the small side tables littered around her apartment. Reaching his side she pushed him back down onto the sofa, he yelped in pain and she murmured him a quick apology.

 

   She waited a minute before asking him, “What happened?”

 

   He groaned, “Marinette,” he whined, “I’m-” he tried to say ‘fine’ but was caught off guard when a cough surfaced. He looked around and realised where he was. “How did I get here?”

 

   “I found you in the corridor, you were in and out of consciousness and I… I just couldn’t leave you there.”

 

   “I- You walked me down the streets…”

 

   “Yeah… No one noticed I made sure that I was roadside and my really large jacket hid most of your… suit,” she really had no idea how to explain what he was wearing.

 

   “Thank you,” her eyes met his and she felt the weight behind his words.

 

   “Are- Are you okay,” she stuttered, “What happened, you looked really- sick last night.”

 

   He averted his eyes and murmured something beyond her range of hearing, she frowned and was about to ask him to repeat himself when he did it for her.

 

    “I kinda crashed into a brick wall,” he told her sheepishly.

 

   “What!? How? Do you need to go to Hospit-“

 

   “No! Please don’t call an Ambulance, I’ll be fine,” his words were panicked.

 

   “Okay, Okay,” she said trying to calm him, “But how did you-“

 

   “End up crashing into a brick wall?” he finished her sentence for her.

 

   She nodded.

 

   He sighed and instantly gritted his teeth, “My grappling hook… I hadn’t used it before,” he explained, “And it was a little more effective than I thought and well…”

 

   “Did it hurt,” she asked even though she could tell it did.

 

   He paused and swallowed his pride before nodding his head, “I’ve got a few cracked ribs and easily a bruised lung among other minor injuries.”

 

   She frowned at the list, they sounded extremely painful and her head urged her, even more, to take him to a hospital but Chat had made it very clear his thoughts on it. Chat tried to sit up again but this time she gently pushed him back down.

 

   He sent her a slightly infuriated look.

 

   “Stay,” she commanded, “you’ll get extra pancakes if you do.”

 

   His eyes grew wide and he instantly complied with her demands.

 

   She smirked internally and headed back to the small kitchen making quick work of the batter sitting on the countertop. Soon she had two tall stacks of pancakes, one was slightly taller than the other, she placed the two plates down on her small round dining table. It took some time but eventually, she helped Chat over to the table, her shoulder protested the heavy weight on it as it hadn’t recovered from the night before but she bit her tongue and just dealt with it.

 

   “Thanks,” he replied happily already digging into the tall pile on his plate.

 

   Marinette tried to find something to break the silence but nothing came to mind, she wanted to ask him questions to get to know him better and she would have asked him if it weren’t for the crazy amount of ways he could interpret them. Very quickly Chat polished off his plate, Marinette pushed him what was left on her plate knowing that she definitely couldn’t finish it.

 

   “Thank you Marinette,” he said after he finished eating, “this… This was lovely but I’d best get going,” he used his extendable stick to help him stand.

 

   Her eyes grew wide at the sight she hadn’t seen anything like it. She shook her head to snap her back to what he had said, “No,” she protested, “You’re not going anywhere while you’re injured.”

 

   He sputtered, “Marinette, I’m- you can’t- I-“

 

   “I have a spare bedroom,” she told him, “and you’ll be using it until you heal.”

 

   He let out a huff and slumped back into his chair in defeat, he didn’t argue the point any further but Marinette could see that he really wanted to.

 

   Her eyes shot over quickly to her front door just to make sure she had locked it properly the night before, her keys were nowhere in sight although she didn’t doubt that if Chat really wanted to leave her door wouldn’t pose much of a challenge. Turning back to him she gave him a small smile and headed off to her spare room.

 

   She hadn’t exactly been in there for a while, the kittens had wandered their way in there and she had spent several minutes looking for them but her old sewing supplies still sat untouched with a small layer of dust atop them. She held her breath as to not breath any of it in, she felt around in one of the draws for a feather duster and gave everything a light dusting, it would have to be given a proper cleaning but that was a job for later. Her attention moved to the old trundle daybed to start setting it up, she pushed aside the small bedside table to convert the bed into a queen size one. It was the first time in a very long time that she had converted it and she had forgotten how heavy it was but using all her strength she triumphed. She tried to dress the bed as best as she could but it ultimately looked like she had just thrown everything on it.

 

   The sound of someone trying to open her locked front door reached her ears, she smiled and waited for Chat to slowly hobble over to her. She stuffed a pillow into its case and threw it onto the bed.

 

   “Marinette?”

 

   She spun on her heels to face him, he was using the doorway as support, “You shouldn’t be walking around,” she commented and picked up another pillowcase and pillow.

 

   He shrugged his shoulders, “I was bored.”

 

   “Here,” she threw the pillow she was holding towards him, once he had caught it she threw him the case, She picked up another pillow and started to stuff it into a case.

 

   “How long will I be staying,” he inquired.

 

   “Until you can walk without pain.”

 

   “That’s… A while, It takes bones like six weeks to heal.”

 

   “You’ve clearly never broken a bone.”

 

   “Only slightly,” he replied smiling, he threw her back the pillow which was now in its case.

 

   “Well, you’ll be staying until it heals.”

 

   “But-“ he tried to argue.

 

   “You’re staying,” she ordered.

 

   “The necklace.”

 

   “You’ll get another opportunity,” she threw her own pillow onto the bed.

 

   “No, I won’t.”

 

   She sighed and sat down on the bed, she patted the spot next to her urging him to sit and he reluctantly did.

 

   “Listen,” she started, “If you stay here for at least two weeks and I can see that you can at least walk with little pain, you can leave but not before then. I don’t want to find you seriously hurt in a corridor again.”

 

   “Okay…” he replied disheartened by her words, “But if I’m still here the night before the Gala, you have to help me steal the necklace.

 

   Marinette had to stop herself from Immediately agreeing, she had to think this through. If she agreed she could no longer turn him into the police because her fingerprints would be on it too and he could easily say that she was his accomplice in all of his other crimes as revenge. It dawned on her that she’d be the one stealing the necklace, she wouldn’t be playing some distant background role, she’d actually be in the room with the safe.

 

   “You’d have to crack the safe of course as well as everything I’d normally do like casing the place and making sure nothing is left up to chance since you’ve… well… made me your unofficial roommate and declared that I can’t walk,” he explained.

 

   “I- I get it, I’d- I’d essentially be you for a night,” her voice was small and she stuttered her way through the simple sentence.

 

   He smiled brightly at her, “Do we have a deal?”

 

   She took a deep breath and sighed, every fibre of her being told her not to say yes even if it got her a little revenge on Lila, the girl couldn’t and wouldn’t stop bragging about her getting the lead in the Christmas production. The thought of the girl flipped a switch in her head, she really couldn’t believe she was going to say yes, she shut her eyes and slowly nodded her head.

 

   “Great!” he replied a little too enthusiastically for her liking, she got the sudden feeling that he was planning something.

 

   She got up to leave only to feel his gloved hand reach out and grab her when she walked a little too far, she faced him.

 

   “Don’t worry Marinette, I won’t make you do anything too extreme, I promise.”

 

   How he managed to pick up on her insecurities baffled her but a small part of her was glad that he did and that he wasn’t going to push her boundaries because stealing was already extremely far out of her comfort zone.

 

   She smiled at him giving him a silent reply and exited the room.

 

   She wondered how she ended up in this position, just the thought of the thief used to terrify her and now, seeing him hurt in that hallway she never wanted to see him hurt again.

 

   Entering her kitchen, she got to work cleaning up the mess breakfast had caused, she scrubbed the pan cleaning off the baked in pancake residue, she wiped down the counter top all while regretting her decision to help Chat and asking him to stay. He would be in her very small apartment for at least two weeks, she definitely hadn’t thought that through.

 

   She wondered what Alya would think of her situation, her best friend would most likely insist that Marinette had a small crush on the man but Marinette knew that to untrue. She knew her own feelings very well and knew that she was nowhere near ready for another relationship not after how her last one ended. No, her relationship with Chat was a friendship slowly being built on trust even if her now slightly skewed moral compass tried to argue against it but it couldn’t ignore the facts, she texted him more than her other friends and with Alya out of the country Chat Noir was the only person she saw out of her dance classes and rehearsals.

 

   Marinette reached for a pen and started to write a small list of things she would have to get if Chat was actually going to be staying the full two weeks.


	8. Day Eight: Mittens for Kittens

   Yawning Adrien sat up and looked around at his surroundings, he panicked a little before it died down when he recognised where he was. It had been almost a week and he was still getting used to waking up in Marinette’s small apartment. His phone screen declared the time to be somewhere just before noon meaning Marinette had already left for work, he sighed, he really wanted to spend some more time with her. Reluctantly he pushed himself out of the large and surprisingly comfy bed, Plagg was most likely already up and eating through the small amount of cheese Marinette had bought the night before.    His lungs burned slightly but he ignored it and he felt around for his laptop and folder. Running across the rooftop the night before had been a terrible idea but he really couldn’t go another day without them especially because he stupidly made a deal with Marinette. He couldn’t believe how in his injured state his head thought that was a good idea; now he had to factor her into his somewhat well-crafted plan, all he needed was the safe which he found four nights ago.

    Clutching his side, he stumbled into the tiny kitchenette, most of the pain had gone but occasionally it came back with a vengeance and today seemed to be one of those days. He took things slow and grabbed the oats that Marinette had used to make porridge the day before. He had paid extra attention so he would remember it when he returned home, the only thing he had to remember right now though was to not overcook it.

    He poured what he estimated was a cup of oats some milk and a little bit of water into the small saucepan before he realised that Plagg hadn’t come over to beg for more cheese.

    Frowning he called out for the tiny cat, “Plagg?” Silence filled the air as he waited for a response. “Where are you?” he muttered to himself.

    He really wanted to know where his Kwami was since this wasn’t his home and he had already found a number of things broken that he would have to replace.

    When Plagg didn’t appear or say anything in response to his call Adrien grew worried, he called the Kwami’s name again but still didn’t get a response. Adrien groaned and poured his slightly overcooked breakfast into a bowel, he left it on the counter as he started snooping around Marinette’s apartment for his mischievous Kwami, he took extra care not to disturb or bump anything out of place.

    He walked past the bathroom door and couldn’t help but peek in to see the playful bunch of kittens. The calico one he had nicknamed Shadow because she followed him everywhere, meowed excitedly at the sight of him and came running towards him. Regretfully he pushed her and two of her brothers back into the room, he didn’t have the energy to chase them around the house like he did the day before.

    Returning to his search he called Plagg’s name just loud enough that the Kwami had no excuse for remaining hidden. He reached Marinette’s bedroom door, he hadn’t seen inside it yet because he didn’t want to invade her privacy. His hand found the round metal doorknob and slowly he turned it, his gut was telling him that this was wrong but he pushed it aside as a blast of cold air hit him the moment he stepped into the room.

    Shivering slightly, he hissed his Kwami’s name as he scanned the room. His eyes picked up on the faint outline of her small bed and twin bedside tables, he carefully made his way over to one and tuned the small lamp that sat on it on. It illuminated the room with a soft yellow glow, she had a very small dresser sitting just under the only window in the room over on the other side of the bed it had a few keepsakes atop it but he elected to keep his hands away from them. There were no pictures on the wall, the only colour came from her bedspread and the small group photo on the other bedside table. He dove across the bed for the picture, he gritted his teeth and swallowed the pain and chuckled slightly because it was only a picture of her and her parents and some of her friends that he knew the name of. Marinette looked happy, extremely happy, he held back the slight fit of jealousy that staring at all the happy faces, he wanted memories like that, he wanted to be surrounded by a close-knit group of friends. Adrien put the picture back after running his clawed finger across her face one last time.

    He stood up and tried to leave but something kept him in place, his eyes floated over the room one last time before his legs decided to finally follow his commands, his stomach growled and he wished he hadn’t left his breakfast in the kitchen. He closed the bedroom door behind him making sure that it was closed before he entered the kitchen to swipe his now cold breakfast off the bench. Switching the TV on he sat in front of it, his chest burned from the constant movement and from jumping onto the bed, he leaned forward to pick up the remote wishing that he had changed the channel beforehand as the pain got worse for him. His lungs heaved in relief, he slumped back and waited for the pain to dull again so he could watch whatever he had changed the TV too in relative peace. His eyes grew heavy and slowly he fell asleep with his half-eaten breakfast still in his lap.

    His sleep was dreamless, he really didn’t want to be asleep but he couldn’t wade his way through the calm waters of sleep fast enough, the shores of consciousness drifted further and further away from him. Plagg’s distant voice echoed across the water, calling to him, his ears only just picked up on the urgency in the small cat’s voice, it pushed him to try harder, to push himself to reach the shore.

    “Kid,” Plagg’s voice echoed, “The words, you need to transform.”

   Adrien paused on the water, he was only a few feet away from the shore but he nodded his head and yelled the transformation phrase for Plagg. He felt the wind get sucked out of him as the words magically pulled his closer to the shore. The sun rose high across the darkened starless sky, he yawned and rubbed his eyes, they slowly started to focus on his surroundings. The cat ears atop his head swivelled around to the front door as Marinette’s keys slid into the lock, he pulled the metal baton off his back so he could stand, his bones cracked at being ins such an uncomfortable position for so long. He snatched the bowel of the seat beside the one he was sitting in, glad that it hadn’t spilt. He turned around in time to see Marinette enter.

   “Hi!” she exclaimed cheerfully, “you okay?”

    He realised how he must have looked in that moment, “Yeah, Just- Just fell asleep on your sofa,” he stretched and a few more bones cracked, “I’m getting you a new sofa.”

    She giggled but shook her head, “Can’t, the sofa came with the rental,” she explained.

    He groaned, “Why must the world be against me.”

    “Cheer up,” she told him and pulled a small box from her gym bag, “I- I saw them and-“ he hands shakily handed it to him, “I- I thought of you.” 

   Carefully he took it from her and unwrapped the delicate green bow. Opening it a pair of black winter gloves sat within, a small smile spread across his lips, he had no use for the gloves but he didn’t want to upset her by telling her that.

    “There’s a scarf too…” she murmured.

    He pulled the gloves out to see the black scarf that sat beneath them, the ends of it were threaded with a vibrant green roughly the same colour of the lenses on his mask.

    He cleared his throat, “thank you- thank you Marinette, I- I love them.”

    “I would have made them myself,” she explained, “But with classes and-“

    “It’s okay Marinette,” he told her, “You even getting them means a lot.” 

   She smiled at him before realising that he was trying to hide his half-eaten breakfast, she had picked up on his habit of not eating.

    “When did you make that?” she questioned pointing at the bowel.

    “I-“ he looked over to her window to see it was dark outside, “a- a long time ago.”

    “You didn’t look at the time when you made it did you?”

    He shook his head, “Sorry.”

    “Here,” she took the bowel from him, “Sit down, I’ll make dinner.”

    “But-“ he protested, “I want to help.”

    “Sit,” she ordered.

    He sighed but followed through with her command sitting down at the dining table, he knew she was just trying to make sure that he didn’t overexert himself but he couldn’t stop that nagging feeling in his stomach, the feeling that told him that he was being treated like a child. He tried to push it as far as he could from his mind because she was only trying to help him and it wasn’t her fault that his father still treated him like a child. He shifted his focus to the TV to try and forget the negative feelings, his ears picked up on the voices but they didn’t translate into words leaving him with the thoughts he wanted to avoid.

    “Marinette? Are you sure I can’t help?”

    “I’m sure,” she replied.

    But he ignored her words, standing up he walked over to the kitchen counter and stood on the opposite side leaving the room so Marinette could still move around freely on the other side. He waited for his chance to pounce at any chore he could do. He picked up one of the onions off the countertop and peeled the skin away.

    “What are you doing?”    “Helping,” he replied.

    “Chat…” she whined, “I’ve got this covered, go sit down.”

    “Please,” he begged, trying his best to convince her, “I feel like dead weight right now, please just let me help.”

    “Fine…” She sighed, “but this isn’t a permanent thing.”  
  
   “We’ll see.”

    She rolled her eyes at him but still handed him the knife she was using to cut potatoes.

    Unsure of himself he seconded guessed every single cut he made, he wanted it to be perfect. Marinette giggled and he looked up at her. Taking the knife from him she showed him just how to cut them, he slices were quick and uneven, she didn’t care what size they were as long as they were cut. She handed him back the knife and he resumed his chore until he had nothing left to cut. She took the sliced vegetables and dumped them into a slow cooker. Adrien couldn’t help but feel slightly proud at the small amount of work he had put into helping her cook.

    “Did- Did you wanna play another round of Mecha?” he asked her.

    She smiled and nodded her head, her gaze drifted towards the window. He followed it at saw the small little specks slowly floating down from the sky, winter had officially come their way, he was definitely going to be using the scarf and gloves she had gotten him.

* * *

 

_**Bonus** _

 

   Plagg could see many things his chosen normally couldn’t. Usually, it was magical threats but he hadn’t found a need for that in over a millennium. Nowadays his ability to look into one’s heart was the one he used more than all the others, it used to only be used when choosing a new wielder but once again Adrien had turned the tables on that one.

 

   Plagg looked into the hearts of everyone he met. Chloe, Adrien supposed friend was full of greed from a childhood spent getting everything she wanted, the was a slight glimmer of goodness there but on some days that was hard to see.

 

   Adrien’s father, his heart had long since been turned to cold stone. The only thing the man ever seem to love was long gone. Adrien said that his mother simply disappeared one day but Gabriel’s heart said something else, that the woman was still very much alive, Plagg couldn’t see much further than that even if he wanted to. Gabriel’s heart also told him that the man was ruthless and wouldn’t let anything get in his way. Plagg had none people like that very well and the end result never worked out best for his wielder but Plagg knew he could never convince Adrien to leave his father, the boy had to do it himself even if it would hurt him.

 

   But the one person he hadn’t accounted for was the girl Marinette. How she had nestled her way into Adrien’s heart so quickly was surprising. Many people had tried to partner up with him and he had said no to all, the kid kept his priorities in line, he knew that anyone he trusted could turn on him and yet he continued to take risks with her.

   

   At first, Plagg was curious with the girl, he truly thought his wielder had developed a small infatuation with her but he didn’t outwardly show that so Plagg had crossed that of the list. He poked around in her apartment looking for anything that would magically draw Adrien towards her, it was a long shot in the dark but sometimes magic found a way to survive and sadly he found no evidence that she was a twentieth-century witch.

 

   He couldn’t understand where this… bond had come from, he went down his tiny list of things only to cross them all off.

 

   The girl was kind and sweet, her heart showed some recent damage most likely caused by heartbreak, she had very little ill intentions and yet Plagg couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

 

   He wanted to kick and scream at Adrien that something was wrong but he couldn’t that would be wrong and Tikki taught him long ago that it was sometimes best to just leave things alone, that everything would somehow turn out all right in the end, he just had to be patient.

 

   So he was, when Adrien slept in that morning he took matters into his own paws, the girl didn’t even notice him slipping into her old gym bag. He waited until the bag stopped moving and there was no sound before emerging from it, he tracked her down the corridors to a room filled with other people wearing the same silly outfits as her and watched.

 

   Adrien said the girl loved to dance and he could see it. When the woman at the head of the class told her to stiffen a move she did, when she was asked to soften another, she did. Plagg couldn’t help but be entertained by the spectacle, her heart told him that she was enjoying the challenges the woman giving orders had set for her.

 

   In another life, Plagg believed that he would have enjoyed her as a wielder but her strong moral compass needed to bend just a little more before that could be the case.

 

   Plagg managed to quell his concerns a little bit, the girl didn’t seem to speak to anyone in the room other than boss lady but that was only because she had too. That was until another girl decided to pick a fight, Plagg held back the urge to drop something on the girls head, he was enjoying watching Marinette dance and this incredibly rude girl had ruined that by speaking.

 

   He drifted closer and only picked up on the last word the girl had said to Marinette.

 

_“Useless.”_

 

   The word hung in the air as the girl walked away, he took no notice of her as he kept his eyes on Marinette. He watched her exterior breakdown for a second, a tear slowly tracked its way down her face before she instantly pulled herself together and wiped the tear away. She looked around the room and no one had noticed that she had dropped her strong façade but Plagg did, it was the same one Adrien had. It hid the emotional storm behind it and rarely did it break.

 

   Plagg vowed to get revenge on the girl in time but something awoke in him meaning that his time with Marinette had to be sadly cut short because Adrien had finally woken up.

 

   He looked at Marinette one last time as she started to dance again, the girl’s words seemed to already be forgotten by her. His ears dropped and he phased through the wall and out onto the warm morning Paris air.

 


	9. Day Nine: Ice Skating

 

   Marinette really hated Chat Noir sometimes, he wouldn’t listen to her no matter how many times she brought up the fact that he was injured so after three days of him begging she finally agreed to go with him.

 

   The snow had come early this year, they still had three weeks until winter was supposed to arrive but that didn’t stop Chat from taking the opportunity to have some fun. The first day after heavy snow was when he asked she said no because she was far too worried about him slipping and hurting himself further so when she returned home from her long shift at the library he had surprised her with an impromptu snowball fight, she had won of course but mainly because she was being more competitive. The second day he had asked again and she once again said no but it was for her own selfish reasons and when she returned home the next day a snowman was waiting for her at the foot of the steps that lead up to her apartment. This morning in her half-asleep state she had said yes, yes to Ice Skating.

 

  Chat had healed a lot in the week and a half that he had stayed with her, she had pushed him to stay with her a lot longer when he tripped and fell headfirst into her wooden coffee table, he didn’t protest much.

 

   Marinette snivelled and groaned, she was already coming down with her dreaded yearly winter cold. She had to dig around in her spare wardrobe for her winter coats and boots just so she wouldn’t freeze out on the ice and so she wouldn’t freeze out in the cold winter Parisian streets because Chat insisted that they head out after midnight just as an extra precaution. She hated that idea because it would be close to freezing or just past it which meant she was going to be cold and miserable for most of the night, she was just glad that she didn’t have work or any dance classes to attend to the next morning.

 

   Sighing she tugged on her blush pink scarf and beanie knowing that she couldn’t procrastinate forever no matter how much she really wanted to, her hand reached for the cold doorknob and reluctantly she opened it. Chat was waiting on the other side for her, her eyes instantly noticed the large black case in his right hand and her curiosity had peaked, she wondered what was in it. Then she noticed his black suit wasn’t its usual form fitting as it used to be, it looked as if he was wearing several jackets underneath it but somehow not at the same time, a few tuffs of fur stuck out around his collar and Marinette really wanted to know just how warm his suit was.

 

   “You ready?” he asked distracting her from her train of thought.

 

   “Yeah…” her voice trailed off.

 

   Chat took her hand and started to lead her to her own front door, she could see the excitement in his face, she wished she could feel that way but the looming sense of dread in her stomach wouldn’t leave her alone, she wanted to tell him what her heart was telling her at that moment but as soon as she opened her mouth her anxiety chased it back.

 

   She struggled with her keys because of how much her hands were shaking, Chat took them from her and unlocked the door for her, she stepped outside and instantly wanted to return to her somewhat warm apartment. She buried her hands into her pockets to save them from the stinging cold and waited only for Chat to hand her back her keys, she reluctantly removed her left hand to take the cold pieces of metal from him.

 

   “Are you cold?” he queried.

 

   She quickly nodded her head.

 

   He chuckled slightly, “Let’s get you moving then, you’ll warm up faster.”

 

  She started walking down the steps leaving Chat at her front door, he raced down the steps after her. His hand dug into her pocket to take her right hand, he forced it open and gave her the set of gloves from his suit, she hadn’t seen him take them off but she graciously took them from him and quickly put them on. The inside had been made with soft fur, the softest she had ever felt, it reminded her of the fur of the sleeping kittens safely tucked away in her apartment. The gloves were surprisingly warm; her hand hadn’t grown hot or sweaty in them making her love them even more. She looked over at him to see him bury his hands into the gloves she had bought for him, she smiled and bravely she removed her now warm gloved hand from her pocket to hold his hand making the thief’s already red cheeks grow slightly darker; she tried to hide the smile tugging at the corner of her lips from him.

 

   She allowed him to lead her towards the ice skating rink, it had been a very long time since she had been there, she cast her mind back to try and remember the last time she had been there, her mind eventually settled on… Luka. She groaned internally, no matter what she did he always wormed his way to the forefront of her memories, there was no escaping him not when he had played such a major role in her life for so long.

 

   “Marinette? Are you okay?”

 

   She pulled herself from the start of a long and dark spiral of sad memories long since passed. She looked at Chat and tried to give him her bravest smile to try and calm his worried look. An ungloved hand reached up to her cheek and wiped away a tear that she hadn’t realized that she’d cried. She looked to see where they were only to find that they had arrived at their destination.

 

   “We- We don’t have to do this if you-“

 

   She cut him off, “No I want to do this,” she tried to reassure him but it was more for herself.

 

   She needed to do this, she needed to prove to herself that she was past him, that she was okay, that she didn’t need him to survive.

 

   “Are you sure?” Chat asked again.

 

   She nodded her head, “let’s go before I freeze out here.”

 

   He gave her an uncertain smile then whispered something beyond her range of hearing, he pressed his hand to the lock on the doors and it crumbled to ash, her eyes grew wide, this was now the second time she had seen him do something beyond her imagination but he didn’t seem to notice her shock when he took her hand and led her into the darkened arena.

 

   “Stay here,” he whispered dropping her hand.

 

   She heard his feet walked off somewhere very quickly and a door open, she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to stay warm when the lights and the small amount of heating the building had turned on. She headed over to where the skates were kept and she wandered over to where the ones in her size were stored. She looked up to see Chat walking over the ice, he seemed to be inspecting it, she frowned but kept her eyes on him as she sat down to put her skates on.

 

   “What are you doing?” She called out to him.

 

   “Making sure the ice is solid,” he called back and he started walking towards her, “Need some help?” he asked.

 

   She shook her head, “I’m fine.”

 

   He shrugged his shoulders and sat down beside her, he opened the case he had brought with him revealing a nice pair of sleek black leather skates, she really wanted to know where he got them so she could get herself a pair.

 

   “You ready?”

 

   She took a deep breath and nodded her head.

 

   Chat helped her to her feet, she could dance with perfect balance but somehow when she was out of her pointe shoes she had the extreme tendency to trip and fall; she found it strange that she had yet to fall in front of Chat and really didn’t want to jinx herself.

 

   Slowly he led her out onto the ice, her feet wobbled and her anxiety rose higher within her causing Chat to hold on her slightly tighter. She had never been any good at skating whether it was roller or ice no matter how much time Luka sank into trying- No, she shook her head having already gone down that route many times before.

 

   “You okay?” Chat asked leading her further out on the ice.

 

   She nervously nodded her head.

 

   Her legs grew stiff and tense, she was terrified of falling. Slowly her mind registered that Chat was running small circles on her wrists with his fingers, calming her and eventually her mussels loosened and her fears dissipated. Soon a wave of confidence filled her, she let go of him and she skated carefully around the outside of the rink. Chat smiled and clapped giving her even more confidence, he started to skate faster than her and she quickened her pace.

 

   They went around the rink several times before she took her attention off of her skates to look over at him and that’s when she felt her foot slip, she braced herself for the cold hard impact. Her arms made contact first then her chest, she slid along the ice a bit before coming to a complete stop. She slowly sat up and tried to stand but her skates kept slipping out from under her, she was about to resign herself to crawling off the ice when the sound of Chat’s skates headed towards her. He held out his hands to help her up, her feet wobbled a bit but he helped balance her out.

 

   She pushed herself away from him as soon as she was standing so she could tear her jacket off to inspect the bruises that were starting to form.

 

   “That was a hard fall,” he commented.

 

   “Felt like it too.”

 

   She threw her large bulky jacket aside just managing to get it over the tall glass. She was angry with herself and in that moment she decided to force herself to continue skating even if her legs protested.

 

  Chat speed up beside her, “Marinette… Maybe you should take a break.”

 

   “No,” she shook her head and she tried to make her legs move faster.

 

   Chat sighed and reposition himself so he was once again skating beside her, “Marinette stop, please.”

 

   She didn’t listen and continued to skate, his hand flew out and pulled her into him, using himself to slow her down she came to a stop. She didn’t protest, she looked everywhere but his eyes but the empty ice rink only brought her distant memories from a time when she wasn’t running from her heartbreak.

 

   She had avoided those memories, locked them away to try and escape the pain but somedays…. Somedays she wasn’t strong enough to keep that box locked and today… today seemed to be one of those days.

 

   Ice skating was something that she and Luka tried to do every two weeks, he loved the activity and looking around at the rink and at the sidelines all she could see was him. He was like a host on the ice, she could see him clear as day leap and twirl in the air and still make the perfect landing. Marinette knew the move all too well but she could never replicate in on the cold ice. She tried to look somewhere else but she could see herself with him sharing what used to be her favourite flavour of ice cream.

 

   She was confused when a tear rolled down her cheek, when had she started crying? And then her heart realized that she had opened the forbidden locked box and it clawed at her bringing all the pain she had buried trying to forget the black haired boy, but unlike the other times she couldn’t close it and she cried, she cried like she had never done before. She hadn’t even cried when Alya had flown back to try and comfort her. Somewhere in her grief Chat had pulled her into a tight embrace, she clung to him as if her life depended on it.

 

   The flood gates had opened and there was no closing it until the dam had run dry. She had instantly packed away all of her feelings when it was happening, she moved on and pushed herself to dance, she threw herself into any and every production even if it was a minor role. Her parents where the only ones that saw it for what it truly was and tried to convince her to slow down but nothing could, not even a hospital stay for exhaustion could stop her.

 

   She had never faced the pain and hurt that Luka had left her with and regretfully she let the painful memory resurface. Images of her old apartment that she shared with him came first, then came that day, she had just returned from landing her first major role when he said those hurtful words, she packed her bags with everything she could carry and boxed up the rest. She had sent a quick message to her father and once everything had been packed into the small family delivery truck. She hadn’t said a word to him not even when she slammed the door in his face. That day she vowed to herself to never see him or mentioned him again.

 

   Slowly the tears dried up and now she was dry crying, all the pain she had kept buried deep down slowly subsided, it felt good to finally get it all out but it didn’t disappear, it was now slightly dulled. She wiped away the remaining tears that were running down her face.

 

   Marinette slowly realized that she had been moved off the ice to the sidelines and was now sitting in Chat’s lap facing away from the massive sheet. He didn’t say anything; her head was still slightly buried into his chest so he probably didn’t know that she had calmed down. She felt safe in his arms and really didn’t want to move but eventually, she had too; gently she pushed against him and he loosened the tight embrace that made her feel safe and loved from around her leaving her exposed to the world.

 

   “I-“she tried to explain but no words formed.

 

   “Are you okay?” he asked softly.

 

   She tried to smile but couldn’t so she nodded her head instead.

 

   “I think we should get going, I don’t know when the owner gets here to start setting up,” he told her.

 

   Shakely she nodded her head relieved that they were going to be leaving the rink and the memories behind.

 

   Chat shifted her off of his lap to the seat next to him, he kept hold of her legs and started to remove her skates, she didn’t protest she just sat there as he swapped them for her winter boots, then packed away his own skates.

 

   “I’m guessing you want to head home.”

 

    She sniffled and nodded her head, her face felt red hot and puffy from crying.

 

   A mischievous smile spread across his face. “Hold this,” he instructed and handed her the sleek black case his skates were in.

 

   She rolled her eyes but followed his command.

 

   Chat quickly scooped her up into his arms and picked her up bridal style, she threw her free arm around her neck to steady herself.

 

   “Hold on,” he murmured.

 

   He headed out the door of the ice rink, his slow and steady pace slowly rocked her to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

   Marinette yawned and stretched, the warm glow of the morning or afternoon sun, she didn’t know, floated in through a window. Her mind was hazy but she felt the soft familiar sheets of her bed, her eyes adjusted long enough to read the small note on her bedside table before she fell back into a deep sleep.

  _‘Hope you slept well Princess,_

_I wish I could have hung around_

_to say goodbye but duty calls._

_I’ll see you again soon Mari.’_

_-Chat Noir_         


	10. Day Ten: Victorian AU (But really its a Heist)

   Adrien lurked atop the apartment complex across the street from the small two bedroom one he had called come for a short while waiting for the girl that owned it to return home. The mask he had designed for her sat in the small backpack he had brought as well as a few extra things that they would need.

 

   This was going to be the real test for her, she had always said that she wanted to help and he was going to find out if she was going to be true to her words or if she had been lying the entire time. He had been questioning her loyalty for weeks ever since he had found her sketch in his paperwork. Plagg had suggested that he clone her phone to make sure that she wasn’t secretly sending texts to a detective but he had argued against that on the grounds that it would be invading her privacy.

 

   He checked the tiny display on his baton for the time to try and quell his growing anxiety in his stomach only to make it worse. His plan had been completely tossed out the window due to someone else trying to steal the necklace from the vault it had been stored in, he couldn’t believe his luck that the person hadn’t been successful in their attempt only a small keypad had stopped them. But that had caused everyone to bulk down on security for the necklace, more security and more patrol routes which meant a harder job but he had been up against tougher odds.

 

   He scanned the streets below for Marinette, it wasn’t the best idea to invite her in on the job not when he had no plan and Plagg… although he had been the one to suggest to him that inviting Marinette to help would be a great insurance policy to make sure that she didn’t decide to tell anyone had changed his mind.

 

   Adrien had long since learned that Marinette liked to stick to a schedule even more so since she had somehow managed to wrangle a roll in the Christmas production on top of her role in the Greek Gods one which had finished the night before. He started to grow worried when she didn’t show within her usual time frame, his feet paced back and forth across the rooftop before they took off in the direction of her workplace. His eyes stayed trained on the streets below, he had memorised where every stone, roof tile and leap was ages ago, he couldn’t see her so he circled back several times but he always ended up where he started with still no sign of her. His eyes shot back to her apartment it was still in complete darkness, he sighed and pulled the set of lock picks from his small utility belt and prepared to sneak over to it.

 

   The cat ears atop his head flicked around wildly at the sounds on the street bellow keeping track of the cars and people on it, when the time was right he extended his baton and pole vaulted across to the slanted roof, his feet made very little sound when he landed. Slipping off the roof he approached the front door and gently knocked on it, he got no reply so he slipped the lock picks in.

 

   Her apartment was a mess, pillows and blankets were strewn across the living room, a lampshade in the hallway had been disturbed and there was a pile of freshly folded laundry on the dining room table it was the only thing that was neat. Carefully he stepped over a few pillows, his night vision made the room a lot easier to see as he made his way towards the hall.

 

   “Marinette?” he called out into the dark house.

 

   The sound of someone softly crying reached his ears, he tipped toed towards the sound, he checked the spare bedroom first to see that it had been returned to its original state, he turned to Marinette’s bedroom door and pressed his ear to it. Marinette’s almost silent sobs were coming from within.

 

   He knocked lightly on the door, “Marinette are you okay?”

 

   He pushed on the door and it slowly opened, his eyes fell upon her curled up body underneath the brightly coloured blankets, the moonlight illuminated her from the window above the bed. His feet carried him over there, his bag was discarded by the bed, he threw the blanket off of her and got into bed next to her, wrapping his arms around her as tightly as he could to try and take away any of the pain she was feeling, he murmured as many reassurances as he could to her to stop the sea of tears running down her face.

 

   Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to take her ice skating last week. Her text messages had said that she was fine, she had assured him that the stresses of that week had finally gotten to her and she had seemed fine earlier that day but maybe she was very good at hiding her pain just like he was. He shifted the way she was laying so that she was now laying on his chest and waited patiently for her tears to dry.

 

   He wanted to know what had hurt her so badly, her pain was emotional, not physical, it left no marks that could tell him what had caused it only the tears showed that she had experienced something.

 

   Steadily the tears and whimpering stopped, she sniffled and her head moved to look at him.

 

   “You okay?” he asked her.

 

   She nodded, “Yeah…” her voice came out extremely small.

 

   “Wanna talk about it?”

 

   She shook her head at first then changed her mind and nodded it.

 

   “There’s this girl…” she started, “Lila, she… She and Chloe were bad when we were growing up but Chloe grew out of her mean-spiritedness for the most part anyway but Lila… Lila never did, she never grew out of her lies either.

 

   We all went to the same little dance studio, It’s hard to believe now but Lila and I were friends for a year, it was a month or so before the start of high school and for some reason, she just started to hate me, she made up lies, started rumours the works. I had helped her a bit before I caught on to what she was doing and today… today she went a little too far, one of the things she had said really-“

 

   “Got to you…” he didn’t mean to cut her off.

 

   She nodded, “They announced who got the role today much to Chloe’s disappointment but I’ve known for a while thanks to you. Lila took the opportunity to rub it in.”

 

   “Huh?”

 

   Sighing she explained, “She got the role- She got the role and decided to use it to her advantage,” her voice was full of anger, “she made up a fresh set of lies and I was… I was kicked out of the production,” her anger was replaced by tears, she quickly wiped them away.

 

   He pulled her closer.

 

   “But… Never mind, what are you doing here,” she asked changing the subject.

 

   He smiled and felt around in the bag beside him until he found the small box the mask sat in he pulled it out and handed it to her, “I was going to see if you were going to live up to your promise but if you don’t then…”

 

   Slowly Marinette opened the box and inspected the mask, her fingers ran along the hours of embroidery he had put into it, the low light that peered in got caught in the light pink threading that blended into the black threading.

 

   “How?” she questioned, “How’d you make this?”

 

   “I had a little too much time on my hands,” he admitted.

 

   “Thank you… It’s beautiful…” her fingers traced the hidden embroidery one last time before she pressed it to her face, “So… When are we going?”

 

   “Huh?” he said a little in shock.

 

   “You said that you wanted to see if I was going to live up to my promise.”

 

   “Princess I don’t mean to hurt your feelings but you don’t seem-“

 

   “I’m helping Chat-“

 

   He shook his head, “You-“

 

   “What do I need to do?”

 

   He sighed, there was no way he was going to convince her otherwise now, “Black clothing, something you can comfortably move in.”

 

   Marinette shot up and ran from the room heading for the spare wardrobe in the spare bedroom, he laughed to himself, he had never seen someone so enthusiastic to be stealing before, he remembered how nervous he was for his first job and he knew as soon as Marinette found out that he essentially had no plan she would be a gigantic ball of nerves.

 

   Adrien got up from the bed and followed her out into the hall, some clothes had spewed out into the hallway, he tipped toed around them and headed into the living room.

 

   “Chat? How do I keep the mask on?”

 

   “You don’t need it yet so don’t bother,” he called back to her.

 

   The bathroom door slammed shut behind him in response.

 

   He looked around and sighed, slowly he picked up a pillow and placed it back onto its spot on the lounge, its brothers soon joined it as did the blankets. The small number of cups made their way into her cupboards all washed and dried, it was the least he could do for her after all she had housed him or over a week.

 

   “I feel depressingly ordinary,” she said from behind him.

 

   He spun around to face her and suddenly all of the air had been sucked out of the room. Her hair had been tied into an elaborate bun held in place with a delicate pink ribbon slightly darker than the threading on the mask in her hands. The rest of her outfit was black just as he had asked, black skinny jeans, a black long-sleeved woollen shirt and a simple pair of black winter boots.

 

   “That- That was quick,” he stuttered.

 

   “Yeah… I'm used to getting dressed in a rush before.”

 

   “Yeah…”

 

   “So, What’s the plan?”

 

   He pulled his eyes off of her and headed over to her dining table, he set his baton down in the centre of it, the green paw sat upright. Marinette crossed her arms and walked over to him, he smirked and watched her face as he reached over and gently tapped the top of it. The Pawprint flashed and a grid-like light scanned the length of the table before it rendered in a 3D model of the opera house completely made out of green hard light.

 

   “That’s not possible,” Marinette whispered, “That technology doesn’t exist, How-“

 

   “One day I’ll tell you but right now I have to fill you in on what’s left of my plan.”

 

   She closed her open mouth and leaned in closer to hear him.

 

   “There’s a truck coming tonight,” he explained.

 

   The model zoomed out to include the surrounding streets and buildings, a small armoured truck not unlike the ones used to transport money to and from banks pulled up outside the opera house.

 

   “It will be transporting the necklace,” he continued, “Normally it would already be sitting in the safe but someone tried to take it from its bank vault so it was delayed in an attempt to keep it safe. The Gala is tomorrow night and will be immediately transported back to its new and improved vault afterwards so we only have a slim window to operate with.”

 

   “Wait, wait- Hold up. We’re stealing it? Tonight?” she squeaked.

 

   He smiled, “That we are Princess.”

 

   “But how?”

 

   “We’ll I planned an easy heist but…”

 

   “But?”

 

   He sighed, “The person who hit the bank spooked the management. Originally it was only five guards on scheduled to patrol the building tonight but now…” he sighed again, “We have over twenty to keep track of.”

 

   He reached back over and tapped the paw, the streets and buildings around the Opera House disappeared. Slowly it lifted off the table, the basement appeared before the floors separated making it easier to see the interior walls, corridors and rooms.

 

   “The safe is here,” he pointed to the room he had explored just below where the stage was, “I’ll need to crack the safe but that shouldn’t be a problem once were in the room we just have to get into the room.”

 

      Marinette leaned up against the table, her hand went to touch the floating model only for it to phase through it.

 

   “How do you collapse it back into…”

 

   Adrien understood what she wanted. Unlike her, his hand didn’t phase through it, he placed the floors back on top of each other, like Lego blocks they all snapped into place.

 

   “You’re missing a door.”

 

   “Huh?”

 

   “There’s a door right here, she said pointing to a small part of the theatre near the stage.

 

   He frowned and pinched at the map making it zoom in, Marinette pointed to the spot again and he could see that there was, in fact, no door, he wondered how he could have missed that, he had spent hours mapping the place and he missed one tiny door.

 

   “How had I missed that,” he muttered himself.

 

   She shrugged, “Maybe because your maps were old,” she replied, “The door was put in when they had to put it in for fire safety, they had the stage area renovated three years and the old fire doors had been removed,” she pointed to a few more doors on the map, “The new one leads just around the corner to that room, well actually it’s the one below it.”

 

   He looked at her then back at the map, “You know the route well?” he questioned.

 

   She nodded and he took her hand in his and led it to his baton. The map updated as soon as her palm touched the paw.

 

   He smiled at her, “Thank you,” he looked back at the map and the new corridor, a small but incomplete plan formed in his mind.

 

   He returned the map back to its original state and looked at the upper windows for a new entry point. He settled on a small round window that led to a room where they kept the extra ropes and lights.

 

   “How do you feel about sneaking through a window that’s less than fifty meters wide.”

 

   “Uhh… not that confidently, why?”

 

   Adrien pointed to the window on the map, “Because that’s our entry point.”

 

   She leaned in and saw the small window, “I better not get stuck.”

 

   He chuckled and disabled the map.

 

   “Any questions?” he asked.

 

   “Why am I coming with you, I mean I’m coming with you anyway but why?”

 

   He shrugged, “because I want some company and because I’ve got to rope you in somehow.”

 

   “You’re making sure I don’t tell anyone.”

 

   “Just a precaution Princess, I assure you. I’m sure you’re very committed and won’t tell because Lila made sure of that a long time ago didn’t she?”

 

   She nodded slowly, “yeah…”

 

   “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, I’ll understand if you don’t”

 

   He wished he knew what was going on inside her head at that moment. Was she second guessing herself, questioning her every word and action? He knew she had a strong moral compass, was it screaming at her not to go with him, not to go through with her revenge against the girl that had wronged her or had she already made up her mind and was now sticking with it.

 

   “I’m going,” her voice was strong but it quivered a little bit near the end.

 

   So she had made up her mind but she still had a part of her that was telling her that it was wrong.

 

   “When are we leaving?” she asked.

 

   “Eleven,” he replied, “they’ll unload the truck at eleven forty-five, the earlier we get there and settle into place the easier it will be to sneak in, they’ll have lookouts scanning the rooftops around the building so we can’t risk sneaking across after it's been unloaded.”

 

   “You’ve put a lot of thought into a plan that you’ve only sketched out a few minutes ago.”

 

   “Mainly it’s the exit strategy that I’m worried about.”

 

   “Right so why are we stealing a necklace that’s been in a ballet since Victorian England?”

 

   “Like I keep telling you Princess, that’s for me to know and for you to never find out.”

 

   She groaned and swiped her pair of gloves and keys off the counter behind her. She headed towards her front door before turning back to face him, “You coming or what?”

 

   He smiled and took the keys from her, “How about we try the window this time, it’s best to not be seen on any traffic cameras.”

 

   The window he had first come through when he had first entered her apartment was once again a little difficult to open but using most if not all of his strength the window came free from its resting place. Marinette went through the window first while Adrien made sure that he had everything in his backpack including Marinette’s mask which she had left on the countertop. He directed her up a few ledges and pipes so she could climb up the roof, he followed her out as soon as she was off the ledge just out the window. He smirked and extended his baton beating her up to the roof, he held out his hand for her and the look on her face was one that he would never forget for as long as he lived. He swore he heard her murmur something along the lines of ‘how does he do that’ making him laugh internally.

 

   “Jump on,” he told her.

 

   “No what- you’re still injured,” she tried to argue.

 

   “I’m fine besides it’ll be quicker.”

 

   She rolled her eyes, he handed her his backpack before she jumped up onto his back, she shifted slightly then settled.

 

   “Hold on Princess.”

 

   Her grasp tightened around his neck, he skipped a few steps before he slowly started running eventually he was running full speed across the rooftops to their destination.

 

   Marinette rested her head in the crook of his neck, he was glad that she had adjusted her arms so that they were now wrapped under his shoulders because she would have been able to feel the deep purr emanating from the centre of his chest, his cheeks started to glow red hot, he shook his head and picked up his pace; it was surprising just how much of an effect she had on him, each and every time no matter how little she did all she had to do was show him a little affection, nobody else had this much of an effect on him. He shook his head again, he really had to get his head in the game, he had a jewel heist to pull off.

 

* * *

* * *

 

  She yawned and stretched as her mind pulled herself out of a deep sleep, a soft breeze snuck through her clothing causing her to shiver in the cold night air. Her eyes scanned the small room to see what had dared to wake her from sleep, Chat was still peering out of the small window in the clock tower roof. She yawned again before slowly crawling her way over to the thief’s side, he handed her the small pair of binoculars he was using and pointed over to a spot on the street below; she raised the binoculars up and looked where he was pointing.

 

  The armoured truck they had been waiting for slowly pulled up to the building, it was a little hard to see but she could see a group of men quickly moving around the truck, some were in suits others were in the uniform of the company displayed on the truck, she observed as they pulled a large metal box out of the back of the truck and raced it back to the building, she passed the binoculars back to Chat so he could see. She waited for him to give the signal to move.

 

  Marinette really couldn’t believe that she was actually going through with this, it went against so many of her core values and yet… she was doing this. She had been struggling against her own mind for the hour and a half they had been sitting there waiting for the truck to arrive. Chat didn’t seem to have any trouble with what he was doing, did he ever have to argue with his morals? It was the one thing that plagued her mind as she tried to bury what made her her. Her mind tried to bring up the risks, getting caught was at the top of her list, She wondered what her parents would think of their daughter becoming friends with a wanted criminal then following him into his profession. What ifs clawed their way up to the forefront of her mind.

 

   “Mari, shh… nothing bad is going to happen, I promise.”

 

  His voice was a dagger to her clouded thoughts.

 

   “We need to wait for the guards to settle a little bit, they need to get into a rhythm that way it’ll be easier to track them.”

 

  She nodded her head and settled back down next to him, “Are you nervous?”

 

  He nodded, “Always, you know, you’re my first partner in this, others have tried but- I don’t know something different about you and I can’t pin it down.”

 

  She smiled brightly at his words as they filled her with confidence. Chat looked back out the window and she instantly knew something was wrong, she quickly looked out the window to see a shadow run across the building across from the Opera House.

 

   “What’s-“ she started only to be cut off.

 

   “Someone else is out there casing, we need to go now before they get to the necklace first.”

 

  He pulled her to her feet and grabbed her mask from the windowsill as well as a bottle of some sort of clear liquid from his belt, he drew lines with it on the mask.

 

   “Relax your face.”

 

  She did as he asked and he gently pressed it to her face. She was surprised at how well it stuck, she wiggled her eyebrows a little bit to try and get it to sit better.

 

   “You ready?” he asked.

 

  She barely had time to respond when he lifted her up into his arms, she kicked out at him forcing him to set her down when so she could jump onto his back. It was uncomfortable but she resigned herself to holding on as tight as she could because there was no way he was going to set her back down now so she could walk the fifty feet to their entry point which as she looked at it was much smaller then Chat had said it was. She stared at the small window, unsure of how she was going to squeeze through it, she knew she could fit through it, it would just be a little difficult. She looked back at Chat and at his wide shoulders, there was no way he was going to fit through the tiny window and he seemed to come to the same realisation as she did.

 

   “Nothing seems to be going to plan right now does it?” he said trying to lighten the mood. “Here I’ll give you a boost.”

 

   “Chat you’re forgetting something, I can’t crack a safe,” she reminded him.

 

   “Well there’s no time like the present,” he murmured, she could see the gears in his head turning as he tried to come up with a new plan, “I-“

 

  She sighed, a plan of her own started to form, the only trouble was convincing Chat but as he said, ‘there’s no time like the present.’

 

   “Chat, do you have something along the lines of a communicator or something?”

 

  He frowned but still answered her strange question, “yeah… I haven’t found a use for it yet, why?”

 

   “Does that-“ she pointed to the metal stick on his back.

 

   “Work with the communicator? Yeah, it does, why?”

 

   “Can you walk me through cracking a safe?”

 

   “Sure?” he answered still not understanding where her line of questioning was going.

 

   “Are you willing to put all of your trust in me and my cobbled together plans?”

 

  His eyes narrowed, “What are you planning Princess?”

 

   “You won’t be able to fit through that window,” she explained, “and it’ll take us too long to regroup if you-“

 

   “we,” he corrected.

 

   “if we want the necklace I have to go in alone and you have to stay here and guide me through.”

 

  He sighed, “Fine…” He pressed something on the bottom of the stick and a small circular dot appeared on his finger, “slip this in your ear it doesn’t matter what way.”

 

  She took it from him and inspected it, it didn’t look like an earpiece but she still slipped it in her ear.

 

   “So… There is a list of things I need you to do okay?”

 

  She nodded.

 

  He slipped the backpack off of his back, “In this bag, there are replicas of the earrings, necklace and Tiara as well as a card in the front pocket, replace all the jewellery with the replicas and leave the card at the back of the safe, okay?”

 

  She nodded again as she slipped her gloves on.

 

   “I know you’ll want to touch everything in the room but only touch the safe, everything has been covered in a layer of dust I’d like to keep it that way.”

 

   “Anything else?” she asked.

 

  He shook his head, “I’ll let you know if think of anything else.”

 

  Chat bent down and joined his fingers together to give her a boost, she put her foot in his palms.

 

   “One. Two. Three and Up,” he lifted her up and she clambered up awkwardly in through the window.

 

  Her eyes adjusted slowly to the dark room which was extremely dusty. She sneezed and Chat laughed on the other side of the wall.

 

   “Chat, guide me out of this room,” she whined.

 

  The earpiece in her ear crackled, the slightly muffled sound of Chat’s snickering echoed through it before he got his act together and told her that the door was straight ahead of her. Marinette kept her ears sharply trained on every little noise as Chat guided her down from the room she had been in. She wandered slowly across the crosswalks and down past the dressing rooms until she reached the door by the stage. Chat had warned her each and every time a guard was on route to her and she would have to duck into an empty corridor. She was terrified of getting caught, her heart raced way above what she was normally used to, her feet stumbled and tripped so badly that she had to use the walls around her as support.

 

   “Princess are you okay?”

 

   “Yeah, yeah I’m fine just- petrified.”

 

   “Princess, you won’t get caught trust me, you can do this it’s only a few more feet.”

 

  She nodded her head and started walking further down the hall, she took her time heading down the corridor behind the door near the stage so she could calm her racing heart. She pushed on the exit door and was blinded by the bright white law in the hall, her feet slowly carried her up the steep steps to the floor above. Chat guided her down the halls to… the prop storage room. She frowned, Chat had to be wrong.

 

   “Chat this is…”

 

  He ignored her comment, “I broke the lock a few days ago just in case.”

 

   “Chat this is the-“

 

   “Princess you need to move now!” he ordered, “there’s a guard coming.”

 

  She stood there frozen as she glanced behind her, the start of a man’s shadow appeared on the wall behind her and it was growing which usually meant the person was getting closer. She groaned and pushed open the door and gently shut it behind her. She stood alone in the dark room as she waited for the guy to pass by before she dared to turn on the light or speak to Chat.

 

   “Mari, Are you okay?”

 

   “Yeah…” she whispered once she knew the man was gone, “what do I do now?” he hands felt along the walls for the light switch.

 

   “The light switch is to your right around waist height.”

 

   “How’d you know I was looking for that?”

 

   “I always assume, you got it?”

 

  She felt around and found it, the room literally took her breath away, she could see all the original costumes she had spent hours in her teen years trying to recreate. She wanted nothing more than to run her fingers over it but Chat’s warning echoed back to her so she refrained from doing what her heart desired.

 

   “It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Chat’s said in her ear.

 

   “It is, the jewels may be a sight for you but the costumes, I can see ones that everyone believes were destroyed in a fire almost twenty years ago.”

 

  He laughed, “I wish I could let you steal one but you have to fit back through this tiny little window again but we need to get back on track, do you see a black safe, it’ll be very old and have a gazelle engraved on it.”

 

   “Yeah,” she replied walking over to it, “what do I do now?”

 

   “Try something for me please, forty-three, twenty-five, ten, fifty-eight, twelve and…”

 

   “And?” she asked turning the dial on the safe to the numbers he had read out.

 

   “I- I can’t make out the last number, it's been smudged.”

 

   “Great,” she groaned, “So how do I crack a safe?”

 

   “Feel it in your fingers, the safe is old so it should make a loud clunk on the last number, just turn the dial slowly and listen, you’ll know when you find the right number.”

 

  She rolled her eyes but complied. Slowly she turned the dial but didn’t feel the massive clunk he had described so she turned it slower, her fingers picked up on some small little ticks then… clunk. She shot up excitedly and tried the handle, it opened with very little effort.

 

   “I- I did it…” she said half in shock.

 

   “You know what to do now.”

 

   “Replace everything in the safe with your replicas,” she replied.

 

  Carefully she removed the necklace from its black velvet box then the earrings and finally the tiara replacing each with their almost identical replicas, the only difference was the bright green glass emerald at the centre of the replica where’s the original had the pink diamond. She placed all real jewels in the black boxes that the replicas had come in, she ran her fingers over ‘Le Grande Gazelle Blanche’ one last time before she closed the lid on it for it was more beautiful in person and then she was filled with regret its beauty would now be locked away from the world, nobody would be able to see you brightly he diamonds shone under the stage lights, it was going to be sealed inside some rich person's vault or taken apart to be sold as separate pieces. Marinette kicked her moral compass aside and place the small little note at the back of the safe before she slid the rest of the boxes back into the safe. She shut the safe and made sure that the dial had been turned back to zero before she left the room.

 

  Navigating her way back to Chat was a lot easier, she was quicker on her feet and she had already made her way down once it wasn’t going to be that hard to find her way back plus the urge to get back to him quicker fuelled her to make even tougher decisions that led to even riskier moves. Chat kept telling her to slow down that she didn’t have to be so bold but she ignored him until she got herself in a dead end.

 

  Marinette froze at the sound of voices on the other side of the stage door, they were loud. Slowly Marinette opened the door and crack and spied two very tall muscular men entrenched in deep conversation with each other. They were so deeply involved with each other that they didn’t notice her but there was still no way that she was going to be able to sneak past them. She gently shut the door and gently hissed a few words under her breath.

 

   “M, don’t panic I’ll get you out of there,” he promised.

 

   “Chat, I’m sorry I- I should have listened.”

 

   “Just stay still okay.”

 

   “Chat?” she asked picking up on that something was wrong, “What’s wrong?”

 

   “Stay where you are…”

 

   “Chat?” Her voice thick with worry.

 

   “Trust me no one will see you,” the earpiece crackled and then he was gone, there was nothing but silence leaving her alone with her own thoughts.

 

  She peeked out the door again and sighed, she really didn’t want to be trapped in the small corridor but she did as she was commanded and stayed still even if she wanted to head back the way she had come and try to find another way out. The sound of the door she had entered in through opened and her panic started to grow as the lights flickered on above her. Her panic rose faster as the person’s footsteps grew closer, she was now cornered and trapped and the one person who could calm her or even help her had left her for dead. She regretted ever trusting him because now she was all alone about to get caught stealing a priceless necklace. She peeked out the door one last time and back at the person who only had to turn a corner before he saw her. She said a small apology to her parents and closed her eyes and waited.

 

  Her earpiece crackled, “Marinette start running, start running Princess,” Chat urged.

 

  She didn’t know why she was trusting him anymore after he had left her but she did, she listened and ran, she threw open the door, the two men in suits were gone. An explosion rocked and shook the building, she stumbled slightly but kept running for that small little window three floors up.

 

  She almost took the door to the small room right of its hinges because of how fast she ran into it, she wanted to be free from the building she would call home during the day. The small little window was still open, she slipped the backpack off in one fell swoop and threw it through the window before she leapt up and tried to pull herself up through it after the bag. Chat helped pull her up through it as her lungs struggled to get air.

 

   “Princess, we have to get going, before they find us.”

 

  She nodded her head and scooped up the backpack before she jumped back onto the thief’s back. He ran as soon as she made contact with his back, she took the few moments she had to catch her breath, she really didn’t know when she would be able to again.

 

  She took in the sights and sounds around her, she came to the realisation that they were on the wrong side of Paris, her apartment was in the opposite direction.

 

   “Chat? Where are we going?”

 

   “Safehouse,” he said, “I think it’d be best if you stayed there for a few days, I pulled a dangerous stunt to get you okay of there so please don’t argue.”

 

  She nodded her head against his back, “Okay…”

 

  She focused on the Eiffel Tower as they ran past it, it was the only thing that could be seen across most of Paris, the amber orange lights twinkled softly against the deep blue midnight sky. The anxiety she had felt washed away and was replaced by one of elation, she had just helped pull off a heist, it wasn’t a small one like the time she had broken into the principal’s office to give Max his robot back, no this was a full-on jewel heist.

 

   “Chat? Why’d you start stealing?”

 

  He chuckled, “The thrill.”

 

   “Does it always feel like this?”

 

   “Yep,” he replied popping the ‘p’, “and it never gets old.”

 

  This was a feeling she could definitely get used to… If she wanted to do it ever again of course.


	11. Day Eleven: Masked Ball

   Marinette stared out across Paris from the balcony of the penthouse apartment, watching as the sun slowly set across the rooftops causing the sky to turn a brilliant shade of both pink and orange. The warm cup of tea sat snuggly in her hands, Chat had spoilt her by buying her expensive teas after all they were going to be here for a while according to him; she took a sip and her mouth burst with flavour, they were better by a mile compared to her cheap supermarket tea that she usually bought.

 

   She wondered when Chat would be back, the large penthouse was extremely lonely without someone there to talk to; he hadn’t said where he was going or how long he was going to be, in her half-asleep state she didn’t even ask him, he just said that he needed to get something. She hoped it was more food, the small amount that was in the apartment wasn’t something she could cook with and she could only stomach two-minute noodles for so long.

 

   She raised her cup only to find that it was empty, she sighed and slowly wandered back inside towards the kitchen to raise her cup and to look through the cupboards again for the umpteenth time.

 

   The sound of keys being slid into the lock caught her attention causing her to frown. Chat preferred to use his baton to enter and leave the apartment; she had learned that was a baton after calling it a metal stick one too many times and Chat wouldn’t stop teasing her about it the night before. Marinette quickly spied the knife block and pulled out one from the centre of it, she gripped the knife tightly in her left hand and approached the door carefully.

 

   A sigh escaped her lips when the familiar blond mop appeared through the small crack in the door, she dumped the knife on the large rectangular dining table and ran for the door to quickly unlatch the chain lock keeping the door in place. She took the dress and suit bag he was carrying from him and placed them on the sofa.

 

   She looked at him confused, “Chat?” she queried, “What did- Why?”

 

   “Well the Gala is tonight and I thought… That maybe you’d like to see the fruits of your plan,” he replied passing her an envelope.

 

   She slowly took it from him and opened it, her eyes quickly absorbed the information printed on thick heavy paper. She looked back at Chat then at the paper.

 

   “How’d you-”

 

   He shrugged, “Connections.”

 

   He said it as if getting invitations to highly secretive events was the same as getting concert tickets to your favourite band.

 

   “Now open the dress, I want to see if you like it.”

 

   She rolled her eyes but replaced the invite in her hands for the gown, she opened it to reveal a long-sleeved winter black dress with delicate pink floral embroidery on the bodice that was made with the same pink threading that her mask had been made with. It also had a high collar just like his suit and white fur had been sown into the dress to try and keep her warm. She looked down at the skirt to get a better look at the embroider that was hidden on it only for a flash of pink to catch her eye; the underside of the skirt was completely pink meaning that it would be seen when the dress flicked up with every step she took. It was clear that the mask and dress had been designed at the same time, she could only wonder how much it must have cost him because they were obviously custom made for her.

 

   “Chat I-” she was effectively speechless, “I- I love it- I- Thank you!” She exclaimed tossing the dress aside in exchange for throwing her arms around his neck.

 

   It was so out of the blue that he stumbled back in shock and had to use the sofa beside him as support.

 

   “I’m glad you like it, Princess,” his arms wrapped gently around her returning the hug, “But… You better start getting ready, the gala starts at seven and it’s-” his voice trailed off so he could look at the time on the tiny screen of his baton, “It’s almost five.”

 

   She nodded and picked up the dress as well as the other bags with things that Chat had also brought for her, she went straight for the large en-suite bathroom to get ready.

 

* * *

 

   The black car slowly came to a stop next to the curb, she looked through the dimmed window to find that no one was there. Chat rounded the hood of the car and opened the door for her, he held out his hand and assisted her out of the car. White snow fell heavily from the sky above, she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to try and keep herself warm; her heels clicked along the tiled pavement, Chat wouldn’t let her wear her winter boots even if she tried to sneak them out by wearing them but Chat could tell pretty quickly and made her switch back to the heals so now she was stuck with her legs being slowly eaten by the cold.

 

   Her anxiety grew with each step the closer she got to the building, her only solace was Chat, the man seemed to radiate confidence compared to her. She wrapped her arms tightly around his elbow to try and steal some of that confidence.

 

   “You okay Princess?” he whispered down to her, his free hand rested gently over her hands.

 

   She swallowed and slowly nodded, “Yeah, just… nervous.”

 

   “Walk and act like you own the place,” he replied, “Works for me all the time.”

 

   She looked ahead at the giant oak door they were obviously going to be entering through, a man in a suit stood in front of it, she could see the faint outline of the man’s gun on his belt, he seemed to be a part of some sort of private security maybe even the same one that was ‘protecting’ the Opera House the night before.

 

   She took a deep breath as Chat led her up to the man, he already had the invite in his hands. The man inspected it carefully and shined a blue light on it to make sure it was authentic before he handed it back. He said something to Chat but she was panicking a little too much to hear it.

 

   The large door opened for them to reveal an elegant hallway lined with several smaller doors that lead off to rooms that she couldn’t see, there were sculpted marble statues and paintings that hung off the wall. The sound of distant muffled music reached her ears, Chat seemed to know where they needed to go as they walked down a bright red carpet that had been rolled out to keep them off the white marble tiled floor. She glanced up above her to see a chandelier made from crystals hanging from the cream coloured ceiling.

 

   They paused in front of the door at the end of the hall, she looked over at Chat a little confused as to why they had.

 

   “You okay Chat?”

 

   He took a deep breath, “Yeah…Let’s do this,” he whispered to himself.

 

   He adjusted his mask and knocked on the door, it opened and the sound of soft joyful music filled her ears. Her eyes scanned the sea of people, dresses of all different colours floated across the ballroom. The younger side of her resurfaced at that moment deciding that she had to inspect all of the dresses to see how they were made, she wanted to run her fingers of each of them to feel how soft the fabric was.

 

   Her hand being squeezed tighter ultimately pulled her from her excitement, she looked up at Chat again, he didn’t look so thrilled to be there. His face although partly hidden by his mask was riddled with panicked anxiety as he stared out across the crowd, it was strange to see him like this so… uncomposed.

 

   She squeezed his arm in an effort to reassure him, “Chat? Are you sure you’re okay? We don’t have to be here if you don’t want to.”

 

   He shook his head, “I’m fine, I assure you but I was wondering did- did you want to dance?”

 

   Smiling and laughing she shook her head, “Shouldn’t we… I don’t know… talk to people?”

 

   “Don’t have to, I never have.”

 

   He took her hand and started to lead her towards the area where couples were dancing.

 

   “Chat, wait!” she hissed causing him to freeze, “we’ll stand out if we go out there,” she gestured to her almost completely black dress then at the wall of coloured ones.

 

   His mouth formed an ‘o’ and he looked around, “right… I know somewhere else we can go through.”

 

   He led her up a flight of stairs to the balcony above, no one was up there, they had the entire floor to themselves. She leaned over the balustrade to look at the floor below, nobody seemed to notice that they were up there.

 

   “I don’t know how good the lighting is but I think we can get away with dancing up here.”

 

   She nodded as he pulled her into a starting position but she pushed herself away from him, “I can’t dance,” she admitted.

 

   “A ballet student that can’t dance?” he replied but he was laughing through his sarcasm.

 

   She lightly punched his arm in retaliation, “you know what I meant.”

 

   He smiled but still pulled her closer back into the starting position for a waltz. A new song started and her nerves climbed as did her what if’s; what if she stood on his toes one too many times and broke something, what if she ripped her dress, what if-

 

   Slowly they started swaying side to side before he started taking her through the steps. She wasn’t used to having someone do all the work in a dance, eventually, she settled into a rhythm and started to learn the steps. When she was confident enough she diverted her attention away from where her feet were going.

 

  “Chat about yesterday-“

 

   “Marinette, I told you last night, it’s fine. I was once like you, a giant ball of nerves and unable to control them enough to think clearly. I don’t blame you.”

 

   “Last night you said you did something risky to get me out of there.”

 

   “You don’t want to know.”

 

   “Chat,” she warned, “what did you do? Don’t think you can get out of this line of questioning.”

 

   He sighed, “Fine… I triggered a line of car alarms to draw the attention outside.”

 

   “And where did the explosion come from?”

 

   “Um…”

 

   “Chat?”

 

   “The first car that I triggered- I don’t know what exactly happened but it kinda… went… bang…”

 

   “Well, I honestly wasn’t expecting that.”

 

   “Yeah, I didn’t either.”

 

   She laughed out loud at his response causing them to stop dancing so she could recover.

 

   She slowly walked over to the balustrade, leaning against it she looked back down at the crowd below. The entire scene reminded her of the princess movies she watched religiously throughout her childhood.

 

    “How many of these do you go to?” she asked.

 

   The question had plagued her mind ever since they had arrived. Chat seemed at ease once she got over whatever was scaring him at the start but he acted like it was normal to attend events like this and his little comments throughout the night had only fueled her suspicions.

 

    “This year? Eight maybe nine so far, there’s about another five for the Christmas season; most of the ones I go to are charity events but ones like this…” he gestured to the crowd below, “ones like this are mainly to show off how rich and powerful they are to everybody else all while they plan ways to screw over everyone else. They all act as they care but really they don’t.”

 

   She stared down at the people below, it was like she was looking into another world and she was suddenly filled with disgust; she hated them probably just as much as he did at that moment, the people laughed and seemed to be enjoying themselves but she could hear the fakeness behind it now.

 

   Chat tapping her shoulder quickly pulled her from her thoughts, he pointed over to an elevated stage on the floor below. She looked straight at it then back at him.

 

    “Watch,” he whispered.

 

   She looked back at the stage. The crowd bellow her slowly quieted down, their attention drawn to the stage.

 

    “What’s happening?” she whispered back.

 

    “Your revenge and my heist. Why do you think I had fakes made? They’re going to reveal the fakes to the entirety of rich and powerful.”

 

   Her eyes widened as she finally realized what was about to happen. She watched the stage eagerly and a man, the director of the Opera House, got up on stage and addressed the crowd with a rather long and boring speech before he finally got to the point and called Lila to the stage. The girl looked extremely happy to be there, her dress was Marinette’s favourite pastel pink, it had been designed around the pink diamond heart of the necklace and Marinette couldn’t stop grinning because Lila was about to get the shock of her life. A man walked on the stage with a familiar black box and she held her breath in anticipation.

 

    “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you… ‘Le. Grande. Gazelle. Blanche.’” The announcer articulated each and word in his sentence.

 

   The man holding the black velvet box slowly opened it revealing its contents to the crowd. The crowd gasped at the sight of the giant emerald green stone at the heart of the necklace, at first the announcer and the man thought it was just the crowd’s reaction to the stone but then one of them noticed. Lila’s face fell so did the announcers than the man holding the box. Panic ensued on stage, the box and the fake necklace was quickly rushed off stage, the crowd below were engaged in loud excited conversation. Marinette ignored all of that and kept her eyes on the downtrodden girl left in the middle of the stage as armed guards rushed back and forth across the stage. All the years of pain she had been put through all for Lila’s entertainment had led to this and now the debt was paid.

 

   The one thing Marinette didn’t understand was why the fakes, wouldn’t it be easier for them to reveal an empty box?

 

    “Why the fake?”

 

    “The necklace is scanned and weighed for any discrepancies.”

 

    “How’d you get that information?” She knew she wasn’t going to get a straight answer.

 

   He smiled, “We best follow the crowd out.”

 

   Well, she wasn’t expecting any answer.

 

   He took her hand and led her down the steps. The people below were pushing at each other to get out of the building faster, Chat pulled her in front of him and guided her out of the large ballroom through the door they had entered too. They reached a certain point where the crowd dispersed into the empty rooms in the hall, Chat forced her to pick up her pace, her arm had been threaded back around his elbow again. She really wanted to take her heels off so she could keep up with his fast pace.

 

    “Adrien,” an older man’s voice split through the silence.

 

   Chat froze and slowly turned to face the man. Marinette didn’t recognize the older man until he removed his own mask. Chat took several steps towards the man leaving Marinette where they had stopped.

 

    “I didn’t expect to see you here,” the man, Gabriel Agreste, took a step towards Chat.

 

    “Father I don’t have time for this,” Chat turned back to her and grabbed her upper arm to escort her from the building.

 

   She looked back to see Gabriel walk away dejectedly, she looked at Chat but didn’t say anything as he walked her out the front door and back to the Black Mercedes they had arrived in.

 

   Her mouth stayed shut the entire short drive back to the rented apartment. She didn’t know how to approach the situation.

 

   Her bedroom was warm when she entered the room, it made her miss her actual bed but she really wanted to stay in the large apartment. She looked at the dress one last time before she slipped it off and got ready for bed, she’d find a way to approach the subject in the morning.


	12. Day Twelve: Post Reveal

   Adrien wished he had called Gabriel something different at that moment, any number of names would have done but no his mind had settled on father and in his rush to get Marinette out of the building as quickly as he could he didn’t even register the fact that had even called him that. He hoped Marinette didn’t realise who he was but he knew it wouldn’t take long, one billboard ad or even a newspaper article would inform her as to who he was. He was going down a dangerous road with her knowing who he was, she could tell anyone and every one although he doubted that she would she was still a risk to his identity. He had to talk to her sooner rather than later even if he never wanted to face it.

    Plagg was having a field day with this recent revelation, The Kwami hadn’t stopped his teasing even into the early morning as the sun slowly started to rise across the rooftops. It was his usual teasing consisting of a slew of I told you so and you would listen but eventually, the Kwami stopped long enough for them both to get some sleep.

    Adrien looked over at the alarm clock on his bedside table and groaned before sitting up, it was past midday already and Marinette would already be awake. Plagg was still asleep on the pillow beside him which meant if he wanted the suit he’d have to wake him and waking Plagg was no easy task. He retrieved his spare mask from the night before off of the dresser and put it on, it was a little uncomfortable but then again all masks were when he was used to the one that came with the suit.

   Marinette wasn’t anywhere to be seen when he exited his room, a note had been left on the dining table for him. She had left to pick up some groceries for the week, he sighed and looked around at the silent apartment before picking up the note again and writing a response.

   He headed towards the safe hidden behind a stack of books on the bookshelf, the necklace was still sitting within, he grabbed it and stuffed it into the black bag it had been transported in. He left the tiara and earrings behind and headed for the door, Plagg would know where he went and follow him.

   He removed his mask and stuffed it into his jacket pocket just in case he needed it later.

   The streets although busy were easy to navigate, the old massage pallor was only a few short streets away. Adrien kept looking over his shoulder to make sure that he wasn’t being followed as he walked towards the parlour, he was used to being followed and this happened to be the one time he didn’t feel constant eyes on him, it worried him.

    Gently he pushed on the old bamboo door, the old man, Master Fu, was as predicted, waiting for him, a cup was already waiting for him as well as a newspaper sat in front of him open to the front page where Adrien could see the words written in big bold letters,  _Stolen_  and a picture of the necklace.

   “Chat Noir, I see your latest heist was a success, I congratulate you.”

   “Thank you, Master Fu, but I had some help on this one,” he picked up his cup and took a sip of the green tea.

   “I was under the impression that you had no partner.”

   “I don’t but I would like her to be… She knows who I am under the mask.”

   “Adrien…”

   “I didn’t tell her,” he assured, “Last night at the Gala… We ran into my father… She’s trustworthy.”

   The old man nodded, “It is up to you whether or not if you trust her, I can only guide you to your next target.”

   Adrien gave the man a small smile before he pulled out the box that contained the necklace.

   “I believe this yours Master Fu.”

   The old man slowly opened the box and smiled, “Thank you.”

   The old man smiled and pulled the necklace from its confines to inspect it, the Kwami, Wayzz, floated over to inspect it.

   “It’s her Master, she’s home.”

   Adrien smiled, reuniting a Kwami back with the others was always a joyous moment for all parties involved. Master Fu walked over to the second gramophone on his shelf, it was larger than the first one but only slightly. He opened it and placed the necklace within before it sealed shut again.

   “Do you have any leads on any others?” Adrien asked.

   He wanted to know if he should start planning his next heist after the heat of his last heist dies down.

   “Not yet Chat Noir but there will be in time, I have a solid lead on your next one, we just have to be patient.”

   Adrien finished his cup and stood up, “You know where to find me,” he replied and walked towards the door.

   “This Girl… Do you trust her with a Miraculous?”

   He looked back at the older man and left without answering the question.

   He didn’t know if he trusted her that much but he trusted her. The Miraculous was something different, Master Fu didn’t trust anyone but him with one, some event in the mans’ past had led him to that and he had left Adrien to choose who he trusted. Adrien would have at least some time to decide whether he trusted her to the effect of a Miraculous being bestowed on her, he knew he wanted to work on his next heist with her to see if she was actually dedicated to his cause.

   She would question everything and he wouldn’t be able to tell her anything but if she trusted him enough her patience would be rewarded in time. He just hoped that she would wait that long for those answers.

   He looked up in through the bakery window at the older couple then at the name on the building, he smiled and pushed on the glass door to enter the small bakery. They greeted them cheerfully but didn’t let slip that he knew their daughter.

   “And what can I get you?” the woman, Marinette’s Mother, he assumed, asked.

   “Uh… Three of chocolate croissants, Please.”

   She smiled and nodded, she picked up a brown bag, he didn’t see her slip the croissants into the bag because her expert hands move so fast.

   “Anything else?”

   “No.”

   He handed over the correct amount and picked up his bag of treats.

   Her parents seemed nice and trustworthy just like her making him question if dragging her into the dark world he lived in was right, he had never wanted to drag her into this world that part was clear to him but Marinette was Marinette, strong and brave, somehow she had gotten him to take down the walls and let her in to a world that no one should even get a glimpse of, a world he had long since grown used to and now… Now he had to decide, decide if he should let her descend further into that dark world.

   He wanted her as his partner, she seemed to understand him better than anyone else he had encountered and he hated that he was even questioning himself right now, he should immediately talk to her about his identity and swear her to secrecy, a large amount of cash each month should help keep her mouth shut and then never let her back into this dark world he called home but he couldn’t bear to let her go just yet. There were still so many things he wanted to learn about her and do with her, his fondest memory although sad was of her at the ice skating rink, her laughter and giggles when she was happily going round and round.

   Opening the bag he reached in and picked out one of the croissants, it was warm and sweet on his tongue, he resisted the urge to eat the other two in the bag.

   He pressed the button to call the lift then the one to the top floor, he prepared his mask for if Marinette was home, he wasn’t ready for her to see him without his mask. He slid the spare key into the lock and pushed open the door his mask raised up to his face, Marinette was in the kitchen so he pushed the mask further on his face and closed the door behind him.

   “You’re back,” she said cheerfully.

   He smiled at her, “Yeah… I dropped the necklace off to someone else who will take good care of it…”

   She looked down at the floor before she continued unpacking the food she had bought.

   “I didn’t sell it if you’re wondering. I never sell them, they all get returned home where they all belong.”

   “Oh… Is that why you steal them?”

   “Mainly,” he shrugged his shoulders, there were many reasons as to why he did it.

   “What do you mean by that?” she said in confusion.

   “Doesn’t matter, do you some help?” he asked quickly changing the subject.

   He didn’t bother waiting for an answer, he pulled out a bag of potatoes and put them in the large pantry cupboard.

   “Are we going to talk… about last night?”

   He winced at her question, “what about it?”

   “You and I both know.”

   “Yeah…”

   “I won’t tell anyone,” she assured him placing a hand on his shoulder, “as long as you don’t tell anyone that I helped you in stealing the necklace.”

   He chuckled, “Trust me I won’t, it’s just… Do… Do you want to continue with…?”

   “Stealing? I don’t know,” she replied shrugging her shoulders.

   “I’ll have another heist within the next month or so.”

   “You always find them this quick?”

   “No, the last one was my first one in about a year and it took a year to plan it.”

   “Wow…”

   He reached into the bag and pulled out a bag of carrots and handed it to her.

   “But… The reason why I’m asking you is because… I would like to continue this… arrangement between us. It’s been nice having someone around and…”

   “I don’t mind helping just… why? I don’t exactly have a reason to do it anymore.”

   “I’ll pay you for it…” he replied shrugging, “Last time I checked you don’t exactly like working after rehearsals.”

   “True…”

   “So what do you say?”

   “Am I allowed to think about it?”

   He nodded and resumed unpacking the food.

   “Chat,” she sighed, “Adrien…”

   It felt strange to hear his name from her lips but he turned to face her.

   “Why does me knowing who you are such a bad thing?”

   “It… I’ve always done this job by myself,” he explained, “The world of highly trained thieves is a dangerous one; you knowing who I am, makes you, your friends and family a target.”     She didn’t respond and he didn’t force her to.

   Adrien had been kicked and beaten, he had almost had his prize taken from him and many people had tried and failed to find out who he was. It wasn’t the best line of work to get involved with but it made some decent cash on the side when Master Fu paid him, the old man knew that Adrien couldn’t live off of just stealing and he did have plans to move out of the mansion that had materialised into an actual plan. Deciding to live this life was a massive undertaking and not an easy one to make.

   “You make it sound like mission impossible.”

   He laughed, “Sorry.”

   “If… If I do this, we become partners, we plan the next heist together.”

   It was a solid agreement, one he could easily agree to, he extended his hand out to shake on it. She looked at his hand then at him.

   “Shake on it?” he questioned.

   She understood and slowly shook his hand.

   Marinette returned back to the bags of food, he hadn’t noticed that she had purposely left out some food meant for dinner. He reached up to his mask and pushed it firmly back into place before quickly removing it from his face like a band-aid. He looked back over to her and smiled, she smiled back, he rolled up his sleeves and immediately was put to work chopping vegetables for Marinette.


	13. Day Thirteen: Villan

   He stared out the large circler window. The necklace being taken from him before his thief got to it had been… disappointing to say the least, he had to try harder. The… The Miraculous was… was his only lead to saving her, his precious wife. It had taken him a while to see the small links between Chat Noir’s _little_ heists, animals… At first, it was meaningless to him until their trip to Tibet, then he understood the power of animals.

    He had to stop Chat Noir for completing his goal, the more Miraculous that he had the more chances he had at curing his wife but he knew that they wouldn’t work, he needed only two to heal her but one had been lost to time and the other… the other was being used to procure the lost Miraculous across the world but had set up shop in Paris.

    He called for his transformation forcing the small purple into the winged Miraculous, he felt across Paris for his next accomplice. His last accomplice was too headstrong and easily spooked, he needed someone… who was much easier to control, someone who was… He smirked feeling the person’s negative emotions, they were exactly the person he was looking for.     He called down one of the white butterflies and let the darkness flow through him into it before sending it out towards his prey. Chat Noir wasn’t going to be much of a problem anymore…

* * *

 

  
     Marinette stared at the contract in front of her, Chat- No, Adrien had written it up per her request. To her it was a wall of long boring text that she had to read, he had tried to make it short for her but he had to cover all of his bases. She sighed and picked up her cup of tea as she started to read, with a trusty pen she signed her name on all the dotted lines until she reached the end then handed the pen and contract back to him. Silently he signed the contract having put it together he already knew what the terms were.

     Awkward silence filled the air between them for neither one knew what to say, conversation had been hard to find since the night of the gala whereas before it flowed easily. Her knowing hadn’t changed much; it had taken some time for him to return somewhat to his old ways around her but there were some days where he backtracked to day one.

     “So… Where do we start?”

     “Training, self-defence,” he clarified, “while we wait for confirmation on our next target.”

     She nodded her head and pulled out her phone to check her schedule before passing her phone over to him.

     “I have to finish my two weeks left at work but that’s my schedule.”

     He nodded, “Mine’s a little more packed than yours but I’m sure I can fit you in,” he replied with a wink.

     She smiled happy to see him return to the way he had been before.

     “Cool, I’ve got work in…” she looked at her small watch, “Five minutes… Oh no…”

     “You’re late aren’t you?”

     “Yeah,” she replied panicked.

     She snatched her phone out from under Adrien and raced to the bedroom she had been staying in to get dressed for work since the necklace had been stolen, The Opera House had been temporarily closed while Police investigated the recent theft. Rehearsals and training had been cancelled for the week apart from those who had a part of The Nut Cracker Christmas production which thanks to Lila she was… no longer a part of it much to her disappointment.

     She grabbed her purse off the floor and ran towards the apartment door, Adrien threw her the keys and soon she was running towards work.

 

* * *

 

  
     His eyes narrowed, there was a much easier way to go about things but he wouldn’t dare do that while he felt that she could still judge his actions so staying in the dark shadows would have to do for now but as soon as he got the chance he would take this fight to the light of day and all of Paris would feel his wrath.

     His dark butterfly slowly drifted towards his prey, they didn’t notice the butterfly approach until it was too late, his prey had been devoured.

     They didn’t fight his control and he immediately set about planning his next intercept. Chat Noir had one advantage against him and that was knowing where the Miraculous was, he needed to find out who was his source.

     He sent his prey searching while he detransformed and headed back to his wife, her glass coffin sat just down the hall from him, it was his first destination. He gazed down upon her sleeping face and wanted nothing more to run his fingers across her porcelain face one more time but the sealed container she was in to protect her stopped him.

     He looked at her one last time before heading back to his office, his son was… a problem, he had gone on his usual month and a half long holiday and when he went on these… holidays nobody could contact him which was painfully annoying because he had a photo shoot scheduled for tomorrow that he needed him for; he had to find a way to stop these… holidays because they were really starting to affect the spring line up.

 

* * *

 

 

     Marinette looked over the rows of bookshelves at the almost silent library, a phone rang somewhere in the building and she could just hear the almost silent whispering in the isles. She sighed and picked up a book from her cart and squeezed it back into its place on the shelf, she moved on to the next shelf and repeated the process until she had walked through the entire library thrice to empty her cart.

     The library was one of her favourite places but on the days where she had back to back classes, it was a painful choir. She smiled at one of her co-workers as she placed her cart back and headed over to hand in her two weeks’ notice to her boss before she headed back towards the door to walk back to the apartment.

     She looked up at the dark grey clouds that had gathered above her as the sound of distant rumbling echoed all around her. Her pace picked up to try and beat the enormous storm home and so she could stop past her apartment to pick up the kittens, two days without them were like torture to her.

   
    Perfect… His… Akuma was doing well for a youngster, her emotions were strong and powerful, she was like a volcano about to erupt and was easily tracking down the so-called secret gathering place of thieves.

     He watched through their eyes as they slowly entered the small blacked out bar only known to those apart of the deepest and darkest criminal underworld, hitmen and mob bosses were known to frequent the place as well as the thieves he seemed.

  
    The little bar wasn’t the first place he would look for the cat-eared their but he had to try. He ordered his Akuma to sit in the dark corner and observe the crowd and wait for the cat-eared thief to arrive, if the slippy cat didn’t arrive then he would at least get some information on the type of crowd he was dealing with.


	14. Day Fourteen: Angst

**I Can’t write Angst.**

 

    He never liked the bar, there were too many people for his liking. He racked his knuckles against the scratched up, small wooden table to try and keep his extremely bored mind active, the bar fries he had ordered had grown cold over an hour ago but he couldn’t be bothered to order more or throw them out.

 

    The old jukebox played in the corner, it played its usual corny music set by the owners to try and please the people that frequented the bar. He used to like the music as it all seemed to reference the types of careers that visited but the songs grew repetitive and old, now he longed for anything else but the music that played.

 

    Adrien stared at the girl in purple across the room, according to the bartender she had been there on and off for three days, she never ordered anything or said anything to anyone. She wasn’t there to hire a killer or for something to be stolen, no she was there for someone.

 

    One of his connections within The Haven had hinted to the girl possibly looking for him. He hated when people were looking for him, people looking was a bad thing it usually meant that someone knew too much or some rich crime boss thought that a little cash would somehow convince him to steal something from another crime lord usually information. He wished he could find some other bar to meet people but The Haven was the only source of decent information on anything.

 

    His eyes narrowed and he adjusted the green mask back into place, he dared not use his actual suit when visiting a place like this, there were too many things that could go wrong.

 

    He wondered what she could possibly want him from him, he was an elusive person, his skill set was unknown to everyone, not including Marinette of course but it still confused him.

 

    The girl looked around the room again, he averted his eyes when she looked his way. The girl stood up and walked towards the exit, his eyes followed her but he didn’t physically. She was there for him, he could feel it in his bones and if it weren’t for the recent deal he had made with Marinette he would have gone over and asked her what for but alas he had signed that contract and had to think about her before doing anything rash.

 

    Slowly he stood up and headed over to the bar.

 

    “Information,” he whispered softly to the bartender, he looked at the girl before sliding a euro across the bar top.

 

    The euro was quickly pocketed and two drinks were poured, “About?”

 

    “The girl, name and who she is working for.”

 

    “I’ll start digging, Monsieur.”

 

    He nodded and downed the shot of whiskey, the bartender followed suit, the deal had been made. Deals were a funny thing within the bar, you offer something for something, usual information for information, deals could get you anywhere and drinking the shot was the union of the deal.

 

    He stood up and exited through the back door and into the trash-filled alley that sat behind the bar, he headed further down the small little street a little further before he removed the green mask.

 

    Adrien made sure not to head straight to the small massage pallor even if the cold winds of an incoming storm urged him to, he hoped the storm cell would give him snow, the disappointment that was sleet had fallen for almost three days in a row, he wished that the weather would just make up its mind and just rain or snow. He tugged up the collar of his thin winter jacket and walked the last few streets to the pallor.

 

    He knocked in a certain pattern before he pushed on the bamboo door, Plagg darted out of his jacket and towards a lit candle try and warm up his small body up, he bit back his laugh at the sight.

 

    He headed further into the small shop looking for the familiar sight of the red Hawaiian shirt.

 

    “Master Fu?” he called.

 

    Wayzz was asleep on one of the massage pillows which was a good indication that the man was home. He peeked into the small kitchen, Master Fu was sitting at a small square dining table eating a brown soup.

 

    “Chat Noir!” The old main explained cheerfully, “What are you doing here?”

 

    “I’m sorry Master but I wanted to inform you that I have a partner-“

 

    “The girl…”

 

    “Yes, we’ve come to an… agreement but there’s something else…”

 

    “A dark force has awoken Nooroo, I was hoping Plagg would let me explain.”

 

    He looked at the elder man confused, “What?”

 

    “Is that not what you came here to speak to me about?”

 

    “No… But I’m interested now…”

 

    “As you know I have been looking for two Miraculous for the better part of ten years.”

 

    “I know Master Fu you don’t have to explain again.”

 

    The old man smiled, “Well then I don’t have to tell you about their powers then. Wayzz felt one of them awaken three days ago.”

 

    “The girl…” Adrien’s voice trailed off.  

 

    “Your new partner?”

 

    He shook his head, “No, there’s this girl, she’s been showing up at The Haven for the past three days. Her whole outfit is this deep purple shade.”

 

    “Do you think she is wielding the butterfly?”

 

    He shook his head again, “No, her theme is lightning bolts, not butterflies.”

 

    “Then maybe she is working with our butterfly.”

 

    “Maybe…”

 

    Adrien wanted to stay longer and talk with Master Fu but when he glanced down at the watch on his wrist he realized that he had to be getting back to Marinette. His eyes tracked over to the Gramophone and Master Fu smiled.

 

    “Which one were you thinking about giving her?”

 

    Adrien tried to hide his smile, “Not sure yet but I was thinking about asking Mullo about her though.”

 

    The old man smiled and nodded his head and retrieve the small necklace from the box.

 

    “Use it wisely…” Master Fu warned before handing it to him.

 

    Adrien bowed his head and inspected the small box, the same small box that had changed his life so many years before was going to change hers.

 

    “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she will.”

 

    He stood up and headed towards the door to hopefully catch up with Marinette on her way back home. The old man waved goodbye to him and Adrien waved back. He tugged up his almost non-existent collar on his forest green jacket as a few drops of rain finally fell from the sky above.

 

    He had a lot to think about on his walk home, choosing the mouse Miraculous had been a rash decision, he had wanted to give her another one, the bee to be exact but something just jumped out at him. His hand twirled the small mahogany box around in his pocket as his nerves grew the closer he got to the library. He could see the familiar black hair and light pink jacket just ahead of him, he picked up his pace and ran towards her calling out her name, the rain fell faster and heavier around them.

 

* * *

 

    The soft auburn hues streaked across the early morning sky, the rays bounced off of the seine and birds chirped high in the trees that moved slowly in the breeze below them, the bells of the great cathedral, Notre Dame rang out across the streets announcing the time to all that could hear it. It was the first time in several days that the sun had shown its face across Paris reliving the people from the dark and gloomy days the dark clouds had covered them in.

 

    Adrien stood firmly on the deep ocean blue gym mats and waited for her to strike again. His stomach growled but he pushed the feeling of hunger down, he could eat later.

 

    Marinette groaned when she failed to hit him again, training her this way was the only way he knew how. The ravenette lunged at him again but as all ways, he moved out of the way of her ‘attack’. She was quickly growing frustrated and her moves were extremely predictable, she lunged once more and he grabbed hold of the wooden stick she was using as her weapon as she ran past him, he brought the stick he was holding down firmly across her back, she yelped in pain.

 

    “Marinette, you need to control your anger,” he explained… again…

 

    “Don’t,“ she ripped her stick from his grasp, “tell me what to do,” she tried to swing it at him but years of self-defense training kicked in and she was quickly disarmed.

 

    “I think that’s enough for one day.”

 

    Adrien tossed the sticks aside and picked up two water bottles, he handed her hers, she was still a little upset but took it from him.

 

    “We’ll continue this tomorrow.”

 

    “No… No… Just- Just give me an hour or so, I need to compose myself.”

 

    He looked at her for a moment trying to decide if she was pushing herself too hard but against his better judgment he agreed.

 

    She wiped some sweat away from her brow and left the small gym room.

 

    Adrien quickly found the ground, he didn’t let it show when Marinette was in the room but he was tried, his muscles ached and screamed for rest.

 

    He had circled back to The Haven after Marinette had gone to bed the night before and sure enough lightning bolt girl was back in her little dark corner of the bar, the bartender hadn’t found out anything new but assured Adrien that he would turn up something and he was sure that he would because favors from Chat Noir were worth a lot even to a humble bartender.

 

    The smell of cheese wafted into the room, he groaned and pinched his nose as the black Kwami drifted into the room, his apatite dissipated. He looked over at the smug Kwami then at one of the wooden sticks, the thought about throwing one at him briefly crossed his mind but that was quickly exchanged for his plastic drink bottle. Plagg, of course, dodged it and sent Adrien an angry stare.

 

    “What was that for!”

 

    “You ruined my appetite,” he replied with a shrug.

 

    “Still doesn’t mean you throw a drink bottle at me…” the Kwami murmured, “I was going to offer you some but now I don’t think I will.”

 

    “When have you offered some before?”

 

    The Kwami didn’t answer his question, instead, he chose to stuff the last of one of his cheese slices in his paw into his mouth.

 

    “Why haven’t you given her Mullo yet?”

 

    A question Adrien knew would come up but he wanted her to be ready, he had to be sure that she wouldn’t lose it or be struck down in a fight. He chalked it up to Master Fu’s constant warnings about how dangerous it was too loose one but some small part of him wanted to make sure that she was safe even after they agreed to share the weight of his quest, he still wanted to shield her from it as much as he could.

 

    “Kid…”

 

    “I’m making sure she can handle it first.”

 

    “And since when has that ever been the case, you had no training beforehand.”

 

    “Well, maybe I want her to…”

 

    “Yeah… You and all us Kwami,” Plagg replied dejectedly but with some understanding.

 

    Adrien turned his attention to the large floor to ceiling windows, he groaned internally when the dark storm clouds reappeared across the once blue sky, both Plagg and all the meteorologists had no clue where the clouds had been coming from, they weren’t showing up on any weather maps or satellites until they were over Paris, they literally came out of… well, nowhere which led more credence to the fact that the girl is in some way working with the new wielder of the butterfly Miraculous.

 

    He slowly forced himself to stand to get a better look at the storm clouds outside. His eyes could just see the small raindrops that were starting to fall from the sky and just like his mood the day grew dark and gloomy.


	15. Day Fifteen: Found

   Marinette moved the mouse on the stick slowly across the floor attracting the attention of one of the grey kittens whose coat had darkened turning him black, he wiggled his tail before lunging for the small white mouse, he caught it and laid down on his side to dig his back claws into it to try and tear it to pieces. In three months they had really developed their personalities had really developed, she had given them all nicknames but hadn’t actually named them. She knew she couldn’t keep them and neither could Chat- Adrien, her mind corrected.

    She was still finding it a little hard to remember his real name, her mind still instantly called him Chat even though it had been almost two weeks since she had learned his name.

    Mullo hid high above the living room, the kittens had mistaken her for one of their toys one too many times. Marinette could only just see her eyes as the Mouse peaked out from atop one of the chandeliers. She giggled but returned to playing with the kittens.

    “Marinette?” the Kwami asked, “Where’s Adrien, it’s been a while since he left.”

    She looked down at the small but simple watch on her arm and nodded in agreement, it had been a while.

    “Maybe we should go look for him?” The mouse offered to try and get Marinette to say the words but she shook her head.

    Adrien, had asked her not to transform yet and she intended to keep the small promise but she couldn’t quell the small amount of worry that had formed within her as more minutes ticked by, the kitten before her hand quickly been forgotten.

    Marinette’s feet carried her from her cross-legged spot on the floor to the glass windows that led to the large balcony, a cold breeze blew through her hair. Snow clouds covered the normally orange and pink sky of a sunset, it wouldn’t be long until they started to fall and the closer it got too dark the more her concerns grew.

    She looked over at the Kwami and sighed, the words left her lips before she even realized it, they had been so ingrained into her head.

    Marinette felt awkward in the skin-tight suit, she way to open to the world as snow gently fell around her. She removed one of her arms that she had wrapped around her to reach out tentatively to touch one of the falling flakes only for it to melt at her touch.

    She pulled the skipping robe that formed her tail, the paw print that indicated Chat- Adrien’s position, it wasn’t moving which worried her even more. Slowly and Carefully she navigated her way towards him, she tried to keep herself low as the grey, white and pink of her suit would stand out from the blackened sky unlike Chat’s whose suit would blend in. Her eyes stayed trained on the rooftops, her feet stumbled and tripped on several sharp edges of the old Parisian roof tiles, they dug into the bottom of her foot like Lego, she didn’t doubt that her foot would be bleeding when she removed the thin layer of fabric that was her shoes.

    She couldn’t see his slumped over form when she first reached the spot where the paw print sat on her map, his silver baton sat perfectly balanced on the edge of the rooftop, she picked it up and searched the rooftop around her, she looked at it in her hands and it was only when she looked down between the small gaps in the buildings to the alleyway below did she see the crown of gold that was his hair. She carefully jumped down to him with some help of his baton.    His soft blond hair was matted with sticky dark blood, nothing she said would wake him, not even her frantic and tear-filled cries that called his name. She wanted to remove his ring and ask the Kwami she had never seen for help but everything within her screamed no.

    On shaky legs she lifted him out of the human-sized dent in the lid of the dumpster, she vowed to hurt the person that had done this to him, there was no way in hell he would have ended up in a position to be found by someone; the last time he was hurt he made it almost to her dressing room door before collapsing.

    Getting him back to the penthouse was a mission in it of itself, she knew she had to slowly get him up the to the roof before she even began to wander back the way she had come. She couldn’t wake Chat- Adrien, her mind corrected again, she couldn’t get him to lift his legs to walk, this was the one of the times she wished she owned a car… A car, Alya owned a car and… no, it was too risky, he was in the suit and…

    Snow began to fall even quicker around them, she groaned knowing that if she didn’t make a decision quickly that they would both be trapped out in one of the biggest winter storms that Paris had ever seen. She murmured regretfully the phrase Mullo had told her before transforming, the skin-tight suit peeled away from her body, her hand tracked down to her phone and her fingers typed in the phone number she had long since memorized.

    After a few rings, her best friend answered, “Hello?”

    “Alya? Where is your car?” Marinette got straight to the point.

    “Girl? Why do you need my car?”

    “I’ll- I’ll explain later I just need it.”

    “Okay…” her voice sounded unsure over the phone, “It should still be parked at Rose’s house.”

    Damn, that was way too far.

    “Is everything alright Marinette?”

    “Everything’s fine Alya, just- Never mind, I’ll see you tomorrow I guess.”

    “Yeah… Tomorrow…”

    Marinette pressed the end call button before her friend could ask her any more questions.

    She groaned and buried her phone back in her pocket.

    Her eyes searched the streets before she turned to the small mouse.

    “What do I do?” her voice was almost pleading with her.

    “The Miraculous gives you super strength in the suit.”

    She looked at the Kwami dumbfounded, why hadn’t she mentioned that sooner. She recited the words again and looked at Chat, he looked heavy, there should be no way for her to lift him but she wrapped her arms under and around him and lifted him with very little effort. Now she knew how he found it really easy to carry her extremely long distances.

    She used his own baton to aid them both up the four stories to the rooftop. She limped carefully across the rooftop with Adrien still out cold in her arms, the snow made it harder to see where each tile was but eventually, she reached the balcony that led inside to the warm apartment.

    With no prying eyes around she gently pulled the black ring off of his finger, the suit disappeared in a flash of green and white light. She set him down on the bed he had claimed as his own, she could still see the bloodstained blond hair, she touched the spot softly but it was enough to make the sleeping man recoil in pain. She released her own transformation and Mullo headed straight for the kitchen or bathroom, she didn’t look because a tea-towel and bowl of water seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

    She strained out most of the water from the rag and patted it to his head to try and remove the dried clumps from Chat’s head so she could get a better look at the wound, her head told her it was going to be a long and painful process for the both of them.

     The sound of Chat shifting slightly in his sleep stirred her from her own peaceful and a rather uncomfortable slumber. Beads of sweat slowly dripped down his forehead, she shot up and quickly replaced the bowl filled with warm water beside her with cold water, her palm met his forehead, her hand recoiled quickly away from the sudden heat.

    She sprang into action as she tried to get his sudden fever down. She tried to get him to swallow the bitter cold medicine she had bought earlier that week when she felt herself getting sick but he wouldn’t open his mouth for it. Sweat started to drench his shirt as his fever climb higher and higher, she wished she had a thermometer just so she could see just how high it was. The rag wasn’t cutting it anymore, she called out to the mouse to get her to run a cold water bath as she prepared to lift him.

    A knock at the door pulled her away from him, she ran to the door only to see a short old man had already opened the door.

    “Where is he?” the man asked before she could ask him what he was doing.

    “What?”

    “Adrien, where is he?”

    She pointed to the large bedroom down the hall.

    The man hurried off and opened the small leather bag he had brought with him. Mullo floated in behind him as well as another Kwami that kind of looked like a turtle but it moved too quickly for her to be sure.

    “You can trust him Marinette,” the Mouse told her, “He’s the guardian, he knows what he is doing,” she assured her before following the older man into Adrien’s bedroom. She quickly rushed after them when she was left alone in the living room.

    She stood in the doorway and watched the man pulled out bottles filled with unknown oils and liquids. She didn’t ask what they were as he seemed to know what he was doing, he mixed several of them together then made Adrien drink it.

    “Is he going to be okay?”

    He smiled and nodded, “He will be, he just needs some rest, all of this was a lot easier when we had the Ladybug Miraculous.”

    She frowned, “The items he steals, they’re…”

    “Yes. In the wrong hands, they are extremely dangerous, we were lucky that they weren’t activated.”

    She nodded.

    “Sit with him while I prepare everything you’ll need for the fever.”

    She did as she was told and took her place back by his side, Adrien had woken up slightly in the few minutes the older man had been by his side. His eyes tried to open but he was still being held tightly within sleeps grasp, she whispered reassurances to him as she replaced the warm rag with another cold one, his fever was still rising but the old man seemed to know what was wrong.

    “Get him to drink this,” he handed her a cup filled with a thick murky green liquid, it smelt horrible and it almost caused her to rid herself of the diner she had eaten.

    She hesitantly raised the cup to Adrien’s lips, he had much the same reaction to her but she forced him to drink it; he sputtered and tried to cough it back up, her hand quickly stopped him and he swallowed it. He was now fully awake and shot her a death stare for making him drink the foul drink, she handed him the cup still full, he looked at her then the green Kwami that was hovering over him, she heard him sigh and soon the cup was empty.

    She replaced the rag on his head again, the coolness seemed to give him some relief from his extremely high temperature.

    “You okay?” she whispered.

    “I feel like I’m in an oven right now but yeah, I’m fine.”

    She gave him a small smile; she was getting used to the joking tone he had when he was in pain. She reached up and found the rag across his forehead had already grown cold.

    “I think it’s best we get you into a bath, your fever isn’t leveling out,” she explained.

    Adrien nodded and threw the blanket that was laying over him off. Marinette rushed off to the bathroom to quickly draw him an extremely cold bath as Adrien slowly stumbled into the bathroom, she dumped a bucket full of ice into the bath to try and make it even colder.

   She tried to avert her eyes when he pulled his shirt over his head, he cheeks grew a light shade of red, she chastised herself for even thinking about him that way, he was a friend that’s it and the simple sight of seeing someone shirtless should not have made her cheeks darkened so much, she was a ballet dancer, not some school girl staring at her crush, seeing someone shirtless was a common occurrence.

    “I- I-“ she stuttered, “I best go change your sheets,” her voice squeaked out and she slipped through the door.

    She pressed her back against the closed bathroom door as she tried to quell her racing heart. She stripped the bed as she said would, finding spare sheets took quite a while, Adrien had obviously not thought about buy spare sheets when he rented the place. She settled on taking the ones off of her bed, she knew she wouldn’t be getting any sleep until she knew he was alright.

    The older man passed her on his way into the bathroom, a bowl stunk of floral scent was in his hand, he entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him. She picked up on a few words but most of their conversation was unintelligible to her, she tried not to focus on the words that were being said as she redressed the bed.

    She caught the sight of the red Hawaiian shirt out of the corner of her eye when he passed, he didn’t say anything as he left, he packed up his bag and walked through the door, she frowned and turned to look at Adrien who was standing in the doorway. He didn’t say anything as she helped him to bed, she tucked him in and her hand met his forehead, his temperature had gone down dramatically in the mere minutes he had been in the bath. She really wanted to know what the old man had done to break his fever so she would know what to do if the fever returned.

    She smiled at Adrien, his eyes fluttered shut, the fever had stripped him of all of his strength as well as hers. The sound of him softly breathing lulled her to her own deep sleep.


	16. Day Sixteen: Ghosts

   He looked at himself in the tall mirror, the black suit he was wearing stood out from the brown cardboard boxes from his recent move surrounded him. Marinette had helped him pick it out because he had no experience picking out apartments and renting out one wasn’t something he wanted to do every time he needed to get away from his father and because it was about time he had a place to call his own. It was smaller than his childhood bedroom, a lot smaller but still large enough for him to live comfortably for several years until he decided to move again.

 

   It needed work, lots of work but he had the cash to spare. The kitchen was small; it was still large enough for two people fit in it but then again he wasn’t known for his cooking. Two bedrooms and a rather large living room had been what had sold him on it as well as the location although he much preferred Marinette’s apartment but she had informed him that it was actually her best friend’s apartment and she was only house sitting it until she got back from a yearlong honeymoon with her now husband.

 

   He held up several different ties against his black suit and eggshell white dress shirt, they each all matched perfectly with the suit, he decided to check his phone. Marinette hadn’t hinted much about her outfit she had just told him that it was a black suit and tie event. He shifted from one foot to the other and went through the list of ties he owned again.

 

   Red Tie, Blue Tie, Green Tie, Purple, Orange, Pink, Yellow, A Simple Black Tie, which on to choose. He tossed them all aside in favor of the black one, that way he’d match anything that Marinette wore.

 

   He found it kind of funny that she had told him about the event because unbeknownst to her he was in fact invited to it. She had mentioned several times that she wished he would be there to save her from the dull and rather boring conversations she was normally sucked into because she was a dancer. She wasn’t the only one who loathed the dress up events, he did too; for the last few weeks leading up to the opening night of the production, he had been trying to find out what she was going to be wearing because he had been planning on spending the night by her side away from the group he usually socialized with at these events.

 

   He tightened his tie around his neck and slowly navigated his way around the boxes to the white wood door, he made sure to pick up his keys before he shut the door, he didn’t want to lock himself out of it within the first week of moving in.

 

   His black Mercedes was parked neatly in its parking spot, it stood out from the rest of the cars parked around it, he unlocked it and got in, The Opera House was his destination. The streets were their usual busy selves and it took him about fifteen minutes to reach it and find parking but soon he was strolling his way inside the building. He had never actually used the front entrance before and it was just as grand as he thought it would be but nothing that could blow him away.

 

   He made some small talk with some of the other guests as he passed through on his way to the backstage area, the audible sound of the girls gasping around him reached his ears when he passed them, he smiled at one of them and he swore that one of them almost fainted, he kept his laughter hidden long enough that he was able to get out of audible range before he let it out.

 

   He walked past the familiar rows of doors until he reached hers, he knocked gently on it, her soft voice answered it and he pushed open the door.

 

    “Hey…”

 

    “Chat- Adrien,” she corrected, “What are you doing here?”

 

    “To see you of course, why else would I be here,” he replied in half-joking tone.

 

   She smiled but continued to apply the thin layer of makeup to her face.

 

    “Remind me, why were you invited again?”

 

    “They forgot to take me off the guest list… again.”

 

    “So you had to show up?”

 

    “Yep, I haven’t seen The Nut Cracker since I was…” her voice trailed off as she tried to remember how long it had been.

 

    “You get good seats?” he asked trying to make small talk.

 

    “I’ll let you know.”

 

   He nodded, he got the feeling that something was wrong so he asked, “What’s wrong?”

 

   She shook her head, “I’m fine Chat.”

 

    “Okay then…”

 

   Silence flooded the air between them before he stood up and went to the door.

 

    “I’ll… I’ll let you get dressed…” he told her, he opened the door and stepped through.

 

 

* * *

 

 

   Figures danced across the stage, his emerald green eyes watched the Ballet from above, he had found his way back up to the catwalk he had first seen Marinette from. He shifted his arm to try and get the suit he was wearing to sit right as it was starting to dig into him, he wished he had checked what size the suit jacket was before he had left the house.

 

   His mind somehow wandered back to his mother, what would she think of it, the dresses were pretty and full of color, his father would describe them differently but although he had been forced through design school he still had no taste for it, small little things here and there like Marinette’s mask and dress were… well… small, they had meaning behind them, he was making them for her and not for the thousands of people that bought his father’s clothes.

 

   His ears picked up on the sound of heals hitting the metal steps of the catwalk, he knew it was her before he even saw her, she was starting to pick up on his talent of being light on his feet, her footfalls were still a little heavy but she was slowly reaching the point where she might be able to sneak up on him.

 

   Marinette lent up against the railing beside him and watched the performers below them.

 

    “Nice view…” she whispered.

 

    “How far back did they put you?”

 

    “Well, I could barely make out the stage so I’d say pretty far.”

 

    “Ouch…”

 

    “It wasn’t all that bad, the conversations I overheard were… quite amusing.”

 

   That had piqued his curiosity, “Conversations?”

 

    “Our little heist seems to be the talk of the crowd. No one is actually here for the ballet, they’re here to see if it was actually true.”

 

   He smiled as he tried to hold back his pride.

 

   None of his other heists had attracted this much attention from the public but then again he had never unveiled a stolen jewel to everyone.

 

    “I’m glad to hear that.”

 

    “So am I…” there was pride in her voice as well, her fingers played with the Miraculous around her neck.

 

   She was still learning self-defense and she still had a long way to go before he decided to start training her with the miraculous but he couldn’t keep the box hidden from her forever.

 

    “You okay?” she asked bringing up his recent head injury.

 

   He didn’t remember much from that night; the fever he had took care of that, he only knew what she had told him. He had somehow ended up on top of a dumpster without his baton, his head still hurt slightly where his hair had been stained a dark red with his blood.

 

    “I’m fine,” he replied.

 

   He was still trying to remember everything that had happened afterward. The foul taste of the concoction Marinette had forced him to drink was still on his tongue, no amount of soft drinks, sweet teas or bitter coffees could remove it. He somewhat remembered Master Fu arriving but what the older man was there for was eluded him.

 

    “I’m sure you are just-“

 

    “I know, the sight has scared you for life and you don’t want to see it ever again,” he joked but Marinette’s face stopped him mind laugh, “sorry…”

 

    “It’s okay, it’s nice to see you back to your regular self,” she explained.

 

   He nodded and turned back to the dancing people below them as they leaped into the air.

 

   Marinette hummed to the tune of the music multiple times throughout the performance, he could see her out of the corner of his eye swaying slowly from side to side in some parts, if they had a large enough area he wouldn’t doubt that she would use it to her full advantage and dance to the music, it was a sight he desperately wanted to see. He wanted to see how she would handle each leap but that wouldn’t happen as the music stopped and the people below clapped at the conclusion to the ballet, he didn’t mind it even if he didn’t get to see the end because he was too caught up in picturing Marinette performing the dance on the stage below them

 

   Marinette headed down the steps to greet the crowds of guests or at least socialize with them for long enough until it was socially acceptable to leave but maybe that was just a thing for him.

 

   He could hear the loud chatter of the people long before he saw them, it was surprising how quickly everyone had evacuated the theatre and headed into the rather large ballroom sized entry hall. Multiple people instantly recognized him, he wanted nothing more to avoid them but knowing that word would somehow get back to his father was enough of a threat to push him to talk to them.

 

   Marinette stood by his side and added a few words here and there to the conversation he was currently involved in until she caught sight of someone she recognized.

 

    “Alya!”

 

   He ended the conversation quickly and followed the black haired girl further into the crowd. She stopped and Adrien searched the crowd around them to see an olive-skinned girl forcing her way through the crowd towards them. Marinette greeted the girl as he tried to remember where he had seen her before, he knew she was the owner of the apartment Marinette had been staying in and he had probably seen her in one of the many pictures on Marinette’s many social media accounts but he had seen her somewhere else, he just couldn’t pin down where.

 

    “Marinette!” the girl cheerfully replied, “I didn’t think you’d be here.”

 

    “Why’s that?”

 

    “Oh you know…” the girl, Alya, that’s what Marinette had called her, trailed off. She knew something but wasn’t telling them. “But tell me about your life,” she grabbed hold of Marinette’s arm and started pulling her away from Adrien.

 

   He stood there awkwardly as she drifted further away from him, his eyes pleaded her to return to him and she did. Marinette noticed this and stood her ground forcing her friend to stop as well. A few words were exchanged between the two and Marinette returned to his side.

 

    “Where were we?” she asked and carried on through the crowd.

 

   He followed her through the crowd, he kept his head low. Slowly his hand snaked its way into her's, she didn’t object to him suddenly holding her hand, she just continued on walking around and greeting people she recognized from the crowd of people many of which he knew too, all the while his anxiety grew; he hated crowds.

 

    “Marinette!” a man cheerfully spoke.

 

    “Luka… I- I didn’t expect to see you here,” she was clearly nervous or scared.

 

   Adrien looked at her, then back at the tall black hair guy in front of him, a man he did not know. Her face had gone a ghostly shade of white it was if just staring at the guy was like seeing a ghost. Marinette smiled but it was a smile he knew well because it was fake.

 

    “Still stuttering I see, may I ask who your new boyfriend is?”

 

   Adrien went to correct him but Marinette stopped him by speaking first, “It’s none of your business, now if you’ll excuse us, we have somewhere else to be.”

 

   She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from ‘Luka’ and his date, he glanced back, Luka was still watching them but he could see something in his eyes if he didn’t know any better he would have called it love… He lost sight of him through the thick crowd.

 

    “Marinette…” he hissed just loud enough for her to hear, she ignored him as usual as she pulled him further away from their original spot, he hated when she did that, “Marinette…”

 

  He shivered when the cold air of winter storm brushed over his cheeks but Marinette didn’t stop, he dragged his feet a little but it didn’t stop Marinette’s extremely fast pace, she was trying to escape something.

 

   “Marinette?” he said again.

 

  She kept walking.

 

   “Marinette?” his voice was a lot sharper and more authoritarian this time, he also stopped dead in his tracks to try and make her listen.

 

  She tried to continue walking but unmovable force met unmovable object and she stopped only to look back at him then let go of his hand. He ran in front of her and stopped again, she tried sidestepping him only for him to stop her and every turn.

 

   “Marinette, talk to me.”

 

   “I want to go home.”

 

   “Okay, we’ll go home but you have to tell me why first.”

 

  She groaned and tried to get past him just so she could get the same result.

 

   “Adrien, move. Please?” she begged but he didn’t move.

 

  He crossed his arms and waited for her to explain.

 

   “I really don’t want to right now…” she tried to protest but he stood his ground.

 

  Finally, after a good five minutes of her trying to get out of explaining herself, she caved.

 

   “He- Luka,” she corrected, “we dated for a while and it ended on bad terms, I swore I’d never see him again…”

 

  She didn’t say anything more than that but he pressed her to say a little more, the small tears that were forming in the corner of her eyes told him there was a lot more to that story.

 

   “If Alya or anyone I knew in there saw me even talking with him I’d… It took me a while to get over him,” she took a deep breath, “I’m still not completely over him…” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

 

   “Oh…”

 

  He hadn’t- He didn’t. He had assumed she had dated before but never- Luka didn’t seem like her type, what was her type? He- was a little in shock, wait why was he thinking that way about her.

 

  He pulled his head back into the present, he took her hand a led her to the car he had driven there in, her best friend Alya was certainly not going to be able to take her home.

 

* * *

 

  Adrien looked at the glass in front of him, he had a red mask across his face this time, the bar was almost empty only a few people who didn’t have something to do on that Friday night. A new bartender in a forest green mask stood behind the bar wiping recently washed glasses before slipping them under the bar where they were kept, Adrien could tell already that they tender was not someone familiar with the crowd of people he was serving, he was a mole but the guy could make a mean drink so he had that going for him.

 

  The bartender kept reaching up and rubbing the corner of his eyes, at first Adrien thought it was a signal but that was quickly dispatched when the memory of his own father rubbing his eyes when his contacts were in for a little too long when he first started wearing them.

 

   “You know, there’s this shop in the third, they sell these glasses that mold to fit a mask,” he offered quietly.

 

  The bartender looked at him, it was a mixture of shock and thankfulness then nodded and returned to drying another glass.

 

  Adrien turned back to the glass he had been nursing for the better part of an hour and decided it was about time he finished the drink; Lightning Bolt Girl hadn’t returned in over three days and she was unlikely to return, he tossed a couple of euros onto the bar before he exited the bar and back to his new apartment.


	17. Day Seventeen: Rooftop Save

   Marinette stood on the small balcony of her childhood home, she had her gardening gloves on and her fingers buried into one of her many barren plant pots. Finding her own apartment had fallen through and she really couldn’t continue living in Alya’s small apartment even though it had been her home for over a year. Her parents had welcomed her back with open arms but she really wanted somewhere to call her own. Her mother tried to get her settled in by helping her unpack some of her stuff but Marinette had quickly shooed her away, she had retreated to the balcony to try and escape the messy sight below.

   Her muscles ached from caring heavy boxes down a flight of stairs and from carrying them back up four flights to her room. The smell of her mother’s cooking slivered up from the kitchen bellow causing her stomach to growl in response and also reminding her that she hadn’t eaten a proper meal in four days.

   She dusted her gloves off to get rid of most of the dirt and slipped them off in exchange for a watering can to water in the seeds she had just planted. Happy with her handy work she put down the watering can and decided that it was time for her to return home, the stars and moon had grown higher and high into the midnight sky hours ago.

   She tossed open her trap door only to hear the familiar sound of Chat’s Baton bouncing off of the rooftops, she smiled and quickly returned to her spot as she scanned the rooftop for him. Light bounced off of the silver metal stick for just a second but it was enough for her, she could see his tall figure bouncing across the rooftops, she called out to him and waved causing him to do a double take.

   She giggled and he circled back around to greet her. He prepared to land on her balcony next to her but once again he misjudged the distance and fell just short of the balustrade. Marinette ran to catch him, he disappeared from her slight but she grabbed hold of something. She looked over to see that she had hold of his wrist and let out a sigh of relief that he hadn’t crashed through the small shelter outside of the bakery below.

   “Well…” he said, there was a hint of fear in his voice, “I’m clearly not one hundred percent healed.”

   She giggled, “definitely.”

   She bettered her grip on his wrist before she put all her strength behind hoisting him back up to her balcony.

    “You okay?” she asked when he was standing on the little lip on the other side of the balustrade.

   He nodded, “yeah, I’m…” he was holding on tightly to the small cast iron fence, “I’m fine.”

    “Well why don’t you come over here then,” she invited.

   He nodded but didn’t move.

    “You won’t fall,” she promised, “I’ll catch you again.”

   He nodded again and slowly climbed over the tiny fence.

    “What are you doing out?” she questioned.

   He shrugged, “Needed some air.”

    “Okay then…”

    “Hey… did… did you want to see something?”

   She nodded and he indicated for her to jump up on his back. She knew that she was potentially going to end up injured but she really didn’t care at that point of time.

   He leaped into the cool night air, lights in buildings and closed shops quickly zipped past her, her face started to grow numb with the constant cold air being thrust into her pale face, she tried to shield her face by hiding behind his broad shoulders but that only did so much, her teeth continued to chatter and she wished she had brought a scarf with her.

    “Hey, Princess… We’re here,” he whispered.

He let go of her and her feet gently touched the soft grass floor of the large park. They had only traveled a few minutes but they looked like they were in the center of a forest all it needed was a few animals and insects running around.

    “How… Where?” she said in disbelief.

    “I found it a few weeks back, it’s amazing isn’t it?”

   Slowly and hesitantly she ventured away from Chat and out into the overgrowth. The flowers that would be in full bloom during the day had closed their petals awaiting for the warm rays of the early morning sun to return, she ran her fingers over the tops of roses as she passed them, she could only picture how it would look when the rays of sunlight beamed through the tall leaf-covered trees. She glanced back at Chat, her eyes screamed chase me, she smiled before she started running as fast as she could away from him.

   Her bare feet felt every blade of grass, fallen twig, tree root, and rock as she ran, sounds of cheerful laughter that escaped her lips bounced off the massive trees around her, the iron gates that signaled the edge of the park quickly approached her, she turned and Chat’s arm wrapped around her.

    “You really didn’t think this game through,” he teased before setting her back down.

    “Nope,” she said through a giggle.

   He walked away from her and stood underneath the very small opening in the branches above looking up at the sky above. She followed him and laid down on the grass right beside him, her eyes searched the stars above her as the twinkled softly. She never felt more alone in the world when she was looking up at the stars, her mind struggled to grasp the reality that so many planets circled those stars and maybe… Just maybe there was life on those many planets.

   Wind weaved its way through the branches, the leaves rustled and she wondered why he had brought her there.

   He beat her to it and started to explain why. “We… I realized that I don’t actually know you that well- Not like- I-” he stuttered, “I don’t know your favorite color or food or…” his voice trailed off.

   She smiled softly at him, he reached into a bag that he had obviously stashed it there beforehand and pulled out several small pillows as well as a few blankets. She settled in for a long night of questioning.

* * *

 

   Marinette walked down the street, it felt strange to be out during the day and not it a four-hour long dance class. Christmas time was the only time she was not required to show up for those types of lessons and every year she found it hard to adjust to her empty schedule.

   Her hands were full with bags filled her Christmas shopping for her family and friends. The small heels she was wearing clicked gently with each and every step she took; a smile was softly displayed on her face, she felt the warm rays of the winter sun on the little skin she had not covered up with thick layers of winter clothes. It was the perfect morning until… until it was not.

   She heard the screams first, she looked around confused and then she felt the stone hand wrap around her waist, she dropped the multiple shopping bags in her hands. Mullo squirmed in her top pocket and tried to escape just as much as she did in the creature’s hand. She stared into its cold eyes as she continued to fight, then he lifted her over his head and propelled her forwards, she flew faster than the small cars below. She closed her eyes and memories floated back to her as she counted the seconds until she felt the impact of a brick wall, a roof or the asphalt that made up the roads.

   She felt none of that instead she felt leather, she opened her eyes and looked up, his vibrant green eyes stared down at her. Her arms wrapped themselves tighter around him, she didn’t let go even when they came to a stop.

    “Marinette… I need you to let go.”

   She wanted to ignore him but reluctantly she released him from the tight embrace.

    “Stay safe,” she whispered, she knew that he was going to fight the creature that had grabbed hold of her, there was no use in arguing against him.

   He nodded then leaped back in the direction they had come.

   Her eyes scanned her surroundings, he had dropped her off at home. Mullo hovered beside her, she looked at the Kwami then back at the retreating shape of her partner in crime. She sighed knowing that there was no escaping her current thought process, the mouse smiled when the words calling for a transformation had been said. Her feet carried her towards the echoing screams of terror, everything within her had screamed to turn back and stay where Chat had left her but a small sliver within her told her to continue running.

   She found Chat quickly, he watched from above trying to figure out something. She tried to land silently beside him but her silent approach still needed some work.

   Chat looked unhappy to see her there and wanted to tell her to turn back and leave but doing so would draw the attention of the creature below. He grabbed hold of her and pulled her further away from the heart of the fight and to somewhere where he could yell at her for being so stupid.

    “Go home,” he ordered.

   She shook her head, “No,” she replied firmly.

    “Please.”

    “No,” she stood her ground.

   He tried to pick her up and carry her away. She dodged each of his very half-hearted attempts.

    “Mouse…” he pleaded, “please…”

    “No, whatever you are planning I’m helping.”

   He sighed and still pleaded for her to return home but eventually stopped when she proved somewhat helpful in protecting him when the creature threw some chunks of building towards them. They quickly ran from rooftop to rooftop to try and run from the massive pieces of concrete and brick being thrown at them.

    “We need to get off the streets!” she yelled to Chat.

   He nodded and took hold of her hand to pull her towards somewhere. The large stadium came into view and she suddenly understood. Her eyes flickered down to the streets below for half a second, she instantly recognized her best friend peddling along on her new bike. She groaned but ignored the girl, she continued towards the arena.

   Chat grabbed her hand again and indicated for her to jump on his back so they would both make the massive leap across the road below to the arena. She awkwardly clambered his back on and he jumped, her stomach did back flips as they flew over the massive gap, her eyes were drawn downwards and she instantly felt vertigo, one of her hands shot up to her eyes because she couldn’t close her own eyes.

    “Marinette…” he whispered, “we’ve… landed? I guess?”

   The half second that they stood there for Marinette to get off his back was enough for the creature to reach them, she turned and her eyes widened but it was too late, tried to dive out of the way but her legs still met stone. She clung to the roof, her legs dangled over the seats below, she glanced how far it would be to drop down to the floor below and her feeling of vertigo returned.

   Chat jumped down to draw the attention of the monster away from her so she could recover and it worked. The monster followed Chat down to the football pitch bellow while she struggled to pull her entire body back to the safety of the roof. She watched from above as Chat dodged the angry attacks from the creature. She had no idea how she was going to get down to him, there wasn’t any visible way down to him; she frowned and dethatched her tail that also doubled as her weapon.

   Carefully she snuck down off of the roof and headed towards the creature. She wrapped her weapon around its leg and pulled toppling it like a scene straight out of Star Wars.

   Chat returned to her and pulled her out of the firing line, he kept pulling her until they were safely on the other side of the field. She watched in horror as the monster started to stand, her foot edged forwards but Chat stopped her again. She looked at him confused.

    “That’s a person,” he explained through a whisper, “We can’t hurt him.”

   She looked back at the creature and nodded her head. All that meant was not to hurt them too badly.

   She edged forward a little and Chat followed.

    “What do we do?” she asked.

    “Be careful, I’ll figure out where the item is,” He led her back out on the field towards the creature.

   She swallowed her fear and took several quick steps towards the monster. The monster tried to swipe at her but she ducked and jumped over the monster’s predictable attacks; she slowly got braver and braver, in her cockiness, she stopped being careful.

   She felt the cold impact of the creature’s fist hitting her ribs, the air in her lungs suddenly disappeared, she was flying through the air, the creature quickly got smaller and as she was sent into the upper seating of the stadium. Her back met the plastic chairs, she groaned and rolled off of the now crumpled seats, Chat tried to fight but he was just as successful as she was and he soon when flying into the stands just a few feet below her. She clutched her side, her eyes watered from the pain and her hands were slick with her own blood, she looked back to where she had been laying, a medium-sized pool of red sat in her place.

   She tried to quell the fear that started to rise within her only to replace it with anger, she turned to the stone monster, who knows how many people were hurt when it appeared, human nature dictated that if she didn’t stop it then whatever military body that got to it first would and if what Chat had said was true then an innocent person was going to be… She wasn’t going to let that happen, she picked up her weapon and stumbled towards the stairs that led down to the lower stands.

   Through her slowly closing eyes she hobbled towards Chat, she whispered a small plan to him and even though he too was tried he agreed.

   She approached the creature and it picked her up in its free hand. Chat attacked the creature and she let sleep take her for she didn’t have any strength left to fight it anymore, she trusted that he would be able to follow through with her plan; all he had to do was get the stone monster to drop whatever it had clutched tightly in its right hand.

* * *

   She groaned at the sudden drop, she watched Chat quickly running towards her through her half opened eyes; another person was there but they had their back to her, she tried to open her eyes but it was too hard. She resigned herself to the darkness her eyes wanted her to return to.


	18. Day Eighteen: Balconies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is late but I promise this book will have an end.

   He stared out across at her vacant balcony, everything had been where she had left it. The lights of the small four-story house had been turned off just a few minutes ago, Marinette wasn’t there. In her very sleepy state she had made him promise to make sure her parents were alright. He pulled his baton off his back and headed back to his own balcony and back to the injured Marinette.

   The balcony that was attached to his apartment was much smaller than hers but it was large enough for him to land and take off from it. A few small plant pots decorated it, many of them were low maintenance but he was still extremely careful about accidentally killing one by knocking one over.

   His steel-toed boots made very little noise when he landed, he glanced through the window to see Marinette had stirred from her sleep from the noise; the door was swiftly opened and he was soon by her side. She rubbed her tired eyes and said a few incoherent words before she returned to her unconscious state.

   He sighed, both she and Mullo had been hurt extremely bad, the list of injuries Marinette had out weight his, he didn’t even remember her being thrown but she had been and he didn’t even try to save her from her fate. He felt horrible about it and really wanted to make it up to her.

   He re-read the list Fu had given him and frowned at the strange names that sat on each line, he didn’t even know where to get most of the ingredients but he had to get them, the small batch that Fu had made for him wouldn’t last two days.

   He quickly grabbed the jug and a cup and pour some of the healing liquid into it. Adrien placed the cup to her lips, she winced and tried to get away from the foul-smelling drink, he chuckled but persisted. He murmured a few words and she opened her mouth for the drink.

   He didn’t exactly know how the drink worked but somehow it had healing powers, slow healing but it helped heal someone a lot faster than the body’s natural healing speed. Broken bones healed in a couple of days depending on how broken they were; he wished he had known about it a couple of months back when he had crashed into that brick wall but the past was the past.

   She coughed and tried to expel the liquid that she had just drunk, a hand quickly stopped her attempt. She could hate him later for it but right now she needed to drink as much as she could of the drink. She didn’t say anything instead she fell back to a deep sleep while he returned back to the kitchen.

   Pulling out a laptop he performed a quick google search to find all the stores that held the ingredients he needed only to his disappointment they were scattered all across Paris and would easily take him about a day to collect them all. He planned his route before looking back at the pillow and blanket he had left on the sofa the night before, he sauntered over to it and laid down, he rolled over several times before he decided he was comfortable enough to get some sleep.

* * *

   He looked down at his list then up at the building, he had the right address but it certainly didn’t seem like it. He clutched his mask tightly in his pocket, he was unsure about venturing out into the world as himself, he was so used to his father’s control over him that he dared not go out into the world as himself in case as he was caught out of the cream coloured outer walls that formed his cage.

   He slowly approached the weathered shop door, a spider was making a new home where a small piece of glass was missing. He pushed open the door and an old bell rang aloud to the empty shop. The old wooden floorboards creaked and groaned with the slightest amount of weight he applied to them. He winced and every creak, he was not used to someone being able to hear his every move but he persisted.

   The old bookshelves that lined the walls were covered in jars full of dried plants, they were ground into powders or were left in their natural dried state; some were filled with liquids most of which he knew like orange juice or squeezed strawberries and some… Some had strange and unfamiliar names that he dared not ask about. If he had to describe the store it would be with one word: Voodoo. It radiated Voodoo with the strange jars and obscene decorations like the blond haired children’s doll sitting by one of the shelves or what looked like small mummified rodents sitting in wicker baskets dotted around the store. He descended deeper into the store, he kept his eye on the jars containing liquids for one that read _Essence of The Jellyfish_ but he doubted that he would be able to find it on his own just by the number of jars there were.

   “Can I help you?” A male voice, that Adrien recognised from somewhere, asked from behind him, a little concerned at Adrien’s presence in the shop.

   He spun around to face the voice, how they managed to sneak up on him was surprising to him, he hadn’t had that happen to him in a very long time. He smiled at the olive-skinned guy, it wasn’t very hard to recognise him without the forest green mask and he was glad to see a pair of round set of glasses atop his nose.

   “Yes, I’m actually looking for a lot of things,” he replied.

   He handed the bartender his list and the guy raised his eyebrow at the incredibly long list.

   “I’m guessing the ticks are what you already have?”

   Adrien nodded and the guy signalled him to wait there as he headed behind a doorway covered in a beaded curtain to grab his items leaving Adrien to continue exploring the strange store.

   “May I ask what you need the _Essence of The Jellyfish_ for?” The guy asked popping his head through the beaded curtain.

   Adrien jumped, “I, uh…”

   “Let me guess, you were given this list by some person and they didn’t tell you how dangerous some of this stuff is?”

   He nodded, “Yeah… The juice from it tastes kinda horrible.”

   “You’ve had this in a drink?”

   “Yeah…” his voice trailed off, “I can’t explain why I need it just know that I’m not using it in an attempt to make myself immortal.”

   The guy looked unsure but nodded, “Most of this stuff I have plenty of its just… the amount of Jelly Essence and Cheetah blood is… troubling.”

   “Oh…”

   “I really have to know what it’s for because of all the horrible concoctions that can be made with that amount.”

   “Healing…” he almost whispered.

   “Sorry?”

   “Healing, it makes a… a juice; It helps accelerate the body’s natural healing for a quicker recovery.”

   “How…” the bartender shook his head, “I’ll get the stuff. You’ll be emptying out several of my stocks but I hope it helps whoever you’re healing.”

   He smiled and the guy disappeared back behind the beaded curtains and quickly returned with several armfuls of vials and small jars. Adrien’s eyes widened at the sight and quickly moved to help him.

   “Thank you,” the guy whispered and placed them all on the counter before heading out from behind the counter to roam the many shelves.

   He pulled jar after jar off the old bookshelves and placed them on the counter beside all the others. He started handing some to Adrien as the amount started to grow.

   “I… I didn’t think there would be this much,” he said as his arms started to grow weak from the number of jars he had in his arms.

   “Yeah… All the jars and vials I pulled from the back were just the stuff we don’t allow people to buy in bulk, these are your more common ingredients,” he explained, “This should be the last one,” he said passing over a jar full of a green powder.

   Adrien took it and placed it on the counter beside all the others.

   “Why do I get the strange feeling that this is going to break my poor porcelain piggy bank?” he joked as they guy started to add up all the prices on the jar.

   He laughed and continued to type numbers into the cash register, “Yeah… But don’t worry this is one of the smallest bulk orders I’ve had to ring up.”

   “That’s… kinda comforting.”

   “My mother isn’t going to be happy though, it takes a while to collect most of this stuff.”

   “What are you going to tell her?”

   “Oh, the usual, one of our regulars came in,” he jested.

   Adrien laughed slightly at his excuse.

   “Hey… I’m Nino.”

   “Adrien,” he replied, there was no use hiding who he was, his father’s billboards had taken care of that.

   “Nice to meet you.”

   ‘Nino’ entered the last jar into the register and the final total was finally revealed to him.

   “Please tell me you take card,” he said, already pulling out his credit card.

   “You’re lucky, we just had it fixed.”

   Nino passed over the payment terminal for Adrien to swipe his card and type in his pin. The machine accepted and a very long recept was printed out. He helped Nino pack all the jars into two large wicker basket to make it easier for him to carry out to his car.

   “Here, I’ll help, it’s not every day we get a purchase this big, it’s the least I can do,” he offered and had already picked up the other wicker basket.

   Adrien really wanted to object but he felt the weight of the one closest to him and quickly decided against it. He led Nino out of the front of the store and past a few cars, Plagg had the forethought and pressed the button on his car keys to open the boot for them.

   “Thank you,” he said and Nino quickly waved and headed back to the tiny store.

   Adrien made sure all the jars were secure before he drove away, a smile stayed on his face as he drove home.

* * *

   She groaned when the familiar sight of the brown murky liquid, she really didn’t want to drink it again. It was his own batch and he had added some things extra to it to try and make it taste better although he didn’t know how better it would taste. She took it from him and reluctantly drank it.

   “What did you put in it?” she said in disgust and quickly reaching for the bottle of water on the bedside table.

   “I tried to make it taste better,” he explained, “sorry.”

   “Just… Put less vanilla essence in it next time.”

   He nodded and she continued to drink the rest of the brown concoction, she quickly gulped down several mouthfuls of water to try and wash out the taste before she attempted another mouth full of the drink until the cup was empty. He retrieved it from her and washed it out in the connecting bathroom, she was still desperately gulping down the water, he chuckled and headed back into the kitchen to retrieve the hot chocolate he had prepared beforehand for her. She greedily took it from him and the mug was quickly emptied and handed back to him.

   “You okay?” He questioned.

   She nodded but continued to down the now almost emptied bottle. He retrieved the bottle from her and refilled it for her, she whispered a thank you and set it down on the bedside table. He helped tuck her in, he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before he exited the room and headed back to his pillow and blanket that still sat on his white sofa.

* * *

   Adrien sat up with a start, he had the strong sense that something was wrong, he rushed towards his bedroom, he needed to see if Marinette was okay.

   His eyes frantically searched the room, the white curtains that led out to the concrete balcony swayed gently in the early morning breeze, the sun had yet to rise but a few small rays of light streaked across the sky, that’s where he found her and he let out a small sigh in relief. He watched her carefully from the safety of the darkness. It had been the first time in a week that he had seen her out of bed, he didn’t want to disturb her as she gazed out from his balcony; her fingers twirled around the leaves of one of the many plants he had out there while her other hand played with the chain around her neck.

   Although her clothes and hair were a mess in his eyes she looked… Beautiful. His heart slowly started to race at the realisation, he had no idea where the feelings of attraction had come from, he had always thought of her as a friend. He’d admit to himself that she was pretty but he… he… He sighed, he was making excuses… He, in some capacity, liked her more than a friend, she was brave even when she was scared, she never seemed to back down from a challenge, he found himself thinking about her more and more as of late and spending a moment apart from her felt like torture.

   At first, he thought it was because he had made a new friend and he had just been excited but… seeing her with her dancing partner and then learning that she still loved her ex in some way had hurt him. He recalled his heart dropping at the sight of her dancing and when he had learned of Luka’s existence. It brought to his attention how little he knew about her life, his night of questions had cleared up a lot of things but there were still so many things he didn’t know about her, he didn’t fully know why she decided to help him steal the necklace and maybe she didn’t know either; he couldn’t deny that she had definitely intrigued him and he wanted to get to know her more than he already did.

   He moved out of the shadows to stand beside her as they watched the morning sun rise, she glanced over at him but continued to watch the sun slowly peek its way over the horizon. His mind was full of questions and uncertainties; he knew he would most definitely not be able to keep his feeling a secret, that was of course if he had any… strong feelings towards her, for all he knew it was a small crush nothing more but he knew his history and a small crush quickly led into a full-blown crush. He was useless when it came to his own feelings that much was true, he knew that he would just have to wait and see if his feelings had changed towards her.


	19. Day Nineteen: Flowers

   She stared out at the plants on the balcony one last time as she drank the final cup of that horrible murky green juice that she had made him drink all that time ago, the overpowering taste of vanilla made her want to throw up but with some inner strength she stopped herself long enough for the juice to settle in her stomach.

   She wished she still had Mullo put the Kwami had been too badly hurt and needed some time to heal and keeping the Kwami would only further harm her, so one of Marinette's closest had been taken from her. Chat had promised that she would be able to see the small grey Mouse again but she highly doubted that, the old man that had first healed Chat had returned and had been the one to take her away and he didn't look like he was going to ever allow her to see the small octagonal shaped box that the necklace had come in let alone the Kwami; and she didn't blame him, she wouldn't want someone who had hurt a creature so precious to see that animal again.

   So she accepted her fate, she wasn't going to have a Kwami to assisted her as Chat did, she was going to have to rely on her own strength and abilities.

   She hid her disappointment well away from Chat and just like she always did when things got too tough for her she ran from her insecurities, much to everyone's disappointment.

   A fresh set of snow fell from the thick clouds above, the glass sliding doors protected her from the freezing air that sat on the other side. She huddled up further into the fur blanket to try and shield herself from the cold slowly seeping further into the room towards her. Her eyes focused in on one of the plants as it was slowly covered in a thin layer of white powder. The sun was covered by the cloud layer providing very little light to what normally would be a bright and sunny afternoon in Paris.

   She was alone in the strange apartment, she had called out several times only to get no response and she couldn't bring herself to venture out from the bedroom, her muscles hurt far too much for her to even stand but if she tried hard enough she knew she could. She remembered helping Chat pick it out the apartment, she had long since stopped correcting herself, he was always going to be Chat to her and there was no use trying to correct the learned habit now.

   She settled back into a comfortable position under the bedding in an attempt to keep herself warm. Everything hurt and Marinette just wanted the pain to stop, the murky drink had helped a little but it in no way stopped the pain. She tried to fall back to sleep, it was the only thing she could do in her injured state.

* * *

   Dreams of spring and flowers in full bloom danced across her sleepy mind, she was wearing a white sundress in a field of tall yellow wheat, a giant oak tree sat a few hundred yards away from her atop a steep hill. Her bare feet carried her towards it, small dainty white flowers surrounded the tree in-between the dark green grass, they tickled her feet when she walked over them, the thick leaves gave her shelter from the warm sun sitting high in the sky.

   With her palm against the thick-barked trunk of the oak tree, she rounded it and a red and black polka dotted picnic blanket was spread across gently across the grass, the flowers poked out from under it. A brown woven basket sat atop it and tray with grapes, various other fruits, cheese and crackers and a wine bottle with a flute glass also sat atop it as well as a small collection of pillows.

   Her feet couldn't carry her over to it fast enough, she arranged the pillows perfectly around her before she dug into the food in front of her.

   The view from atop the hill was amazing, she could see for miles around. To the ends of the wheat fields and the barn, the silo and the farmhouse. The dirt road that led away from it all and the hills full of tall fern trees that lead into tall snow-capped mountains.

   She had no idea where she was but she knew that she never wanted to leave, she wanted to spend the rest of her days there, she could just imagine small little black and some blond haired girls and boys running around her playing games and suddenly like magic they were. She smiled brightly from ear to ear as she came to the crushing realisation that she was in a dream and the sight before her probably didn't exist, a single solitary tear rolled down her face.

* * *

   The Sound of the front door being shut awoke her with a start, she instantly shot up in bed, the dream still clung tightly to her mind she laid back down at tried to will herself to back to the dream but her attempts were futile, she sighed and swung her feet over to the side of the bed only to hesitate when her feet brushed against the wooden floor.

   "Marinette?" Chat called but Marinette stayed frozen in place, "I'm home."

   She groaned internally, she whispered a few words of encouragement to herself and slowly she and steadily rose to her feet. Her legs shook with each step, she used the wall for support all the way to the enclosed kitchen where Chat was putting away several bags of shopping. He opened a cupboard and jars upon jars greeted her sight, she squinted to try and read the labels as she got closer to it.

   "Hey…" he said handing her the bottle of milk to put in the fridge next to her since she was closer, "I wasn't expecting you to be out of bed."

   "I'm-" her vision blurred and she clutched desperately to the handle on the fridge door.

   "Marinette!" his voice was filled with concern, his blurred face was the only thing she could see, "Are you okay?"

   "I'm- I'm fine," although she knew she wasn't.

   Earlier that morning she had pushed herself too far but the endless days she had seeming spent in bed were starting to get to her. She loved to be productive and being alone without anything to do… she was starting to go stir crazy, constantly staring at the yellowing paint on the ceiling above and Chat's apartment walls that were devoid of any colour. And on the odd occasion, she had dreams, they only served to remind her of what she was missing.

   "You don't look it," he commented, "Here, how about you-"

   "No not the bed, anywhere but that," she complained.

   "Okay then but you aren't standing up any longer," he replied.

   She nodded in agreement, her vision cleared up slightly, he took the bottle of milk from her and then she was in his arm being carried bridal style into the living room.

   A small blanket and a pillow greeted her when he set her down on the white leather lounge, he handed her the TV remote and quickly headed back into the kitchen to put away the rest of the food items.

   She flicked through channel after channel but nothing piqued her interest long enough.

   "So? What are we watching?" Chat asked placing two cups on the coffee table and sitting down next to her, ignoring the fact that she had jumped at his sudden appearance.

   She shrugged through a yawn and handed him the remote so he could pick something better than the cooking channel she was currently watching.

   "I brought coffee," he offered.

   She nodded as he flicked through the channels eventually settling on a movie she hadn't seen before.

   Slowly he pulled her closer and she rested her head against his chest, the characters on screen didn't interest her, she tried to drink her coffee silently as to not disturb Chat.

   "Oh!" he exclaimed, "I almost forgot."

   She sat up and looked at him in confusion as he ran towards the hallway that led to the front door. She placed her cup back on the coffee table and prepared herself to follow him to investigate.

   "Close your eyes," he called.

   She rolled her eyes but did as he asked.

   She could hear him carefully creeping towards her, not by his footsteps but the rustling of the plastic he was holding. He took his time returning to her side, enough time for her to wonder what on earth he had gotten for her. He was standing in front of her when one of his hands slowly tracked down her left arm, a gesture for her to hold her hand out so she did, her palm open for him to place whatever he had in his own hand in it only for him to turn it and push what felt like a small bundle of sticks into her open hand.

   "Open," he commanded.

   Her eyes slowly fluttered open and the small bouquet of pink roses greeted her slight. She lifted them up to her nose so she could smell their sweet smelling scent. She brought them down at smiled at Chat.

   "Thank-you," she whispered before clearing her throat and saying it louder for him to hear, "Thank-you, they- they're lovely." She slowly rose to her feet and tried to head off to the kitchen to put them in water but Chat stopped her. She frowned at him and tried to pass him again but she once again stopped her, "Chat…" she whined, "let me pass, please."

   He shook his head, "later okay, once you get your strength back."

   She crossed her arms in an attempt to be stubborn but as if on cue her she felt herself grow light headed and she started to see double, she allowed herself to fall back on the sofa. He took the flowers from her weakened hand and placed it on the coffee table beside her half-drunk coffee.

   "You okay Marinette?"

   She slowly nodded her head.

   "I'm going to get more of that juice okay."

   She groaned but complied with his request, she understood why she had been bed bound in the first place, she was definitely regretting watching the sunrise now. Chat disappeared back into the kitchen as she tried to quell the pounding headache that was slowly getting worse.

   She didn't know how long Chat had been gone but she graciously took the cup from him. It was cold to the touch, she sloshed it around slightly and blended ice bounced around the inside of the glass.

   "I have to blend it anyway so I thought I'd still experiment a little with the taste."

   She slowly raised the cup to her lips and mentally prepared for the worst taste in the world but was happily surprised when she tasted caramel on her tongue. She drank it a lot quicker than all the other times the drink had been placed in front of her.

   "I'm guessing it tastes a lot better?"

   She nodded and handed him back the empty cup which was quickly placed on the coffee table beside all the others. He settled back in beside her and she re-entered her position in his arms for the remainder of the movie. Her eyes occasionally flickered down from the TV to the pale pink roses and a small smile spread across her lips each and every time she saw them. The temptation to reach over and touch the delicate petals constantly re-surfaced but she ignored it, she was like a kid who just got a new toy for Christmas but had to wait until she finished breakfast until she could play with it or maybe it was because nobody had bought her flowers before, it was all new and exciting.

   She looked up and Chat before she snuggled deeper into his embrace, she felt like she was back at Alya's apartment with him before a giant stone monster had attacked the city and the people of Paris were scared to go out onto the street. She longed for those days to return because of how simple they were but that was just wishful thinking, she turned her attention to the TV to try and focus on the rest of the movie before it ended.


	20. Day Twenty: Pranks

   Adrien stared at the gramophone, Master Fu had made it very clear that he wasn’t going to be handing out any more of the very limited Miraculous he had in his possession. He knew the code to the secret compartment, the old man had taught it to him in case one day he wasn’t around, Plagg had explained it as him being taught the old ways of the ancient order of the guardians, a flattering thought back then now it was useful information.

   Master Fu would know that he had taken one, the thought of sneaking one of the many pieces of jewellery out of the box crossed his mind several times, Adrien was a good thief but not good enough to trick the old man and even begging for a second chance would not help, he even thought about admitting that he wasn’t able to steal his latest target when in actuality he’d given it to Marinette but he drew a metaphorical line through them all.

   He was stuck between his duty and friendship. He raised his cup back to his lips and watched Fu out of the corner of his eye. He wasn’t used to being summoned by the old man, normally he got a very strange text from the man when he was needed, this was the first time the green Kwami Wayzz had come to collect him.

   Fu flipped through his stack of papers until he found the one he was looking for. He spun around and handed it to Adrien to inspect it. Adrien squinted his eyes a little to read the tiny worlds on it, the suit always had that effect on him, it was a cat’s natural ability to zoom in that caused it, his eyes moved a little too quickly for him at times and his body compensated it by squinting and forcing his eye to focus on what he wanted to see.

   The words slowly came into view, the words were mostly a description of several different Miraculous, his eyes quickly found the highlight words. Butterfly, Peacock, Lion, Bear, Ladybug… Quite a few more were below them, he looked at Master Fu in confusion, it was a list of all the lost Miraculous. He reread the page looking for an explanation but found none.

   “We need to collect them as fast as possible, the Ladybug Miraculous most of all since this…”

   “Hawkmoth,” Adrien corrected. The villain’s infamous public speech a week ago informed everyone what his plan was and that included his name. The guy they were up against had a little bit of a flair for the dramatics, they almost five-minute-long speech had included a small demonstration of his so-called power.

   “Yes… he has made his intention’s very clear, the Ladybug Miraculous is our top priority but first I have a lead on the Bear Miraculous.”

   Another paper was removed from the pile, this one was much smaller, a lot smaller, Adrien quickly took it from him and his eyes quickly found the words. It was an address and judging by the postcode it was down near Montpellier, it was quite a lot further than all the others had been an hour or so away from home.

   “Master Fu? You never explained why they are all in France.”

   “Ah… Yes… Well, this country was always planned as a safe haven in case anything went wrong. There was always a plan to bring them here, the order was growing too large in our home country but that never came to pass, many of my brothers escaped with one or two of the Miraculous, I was the only one who escaped with a box but I lost two along the way. The Ladybug Miraculous was still with its wielder at the time so it wasn’t in the box at the time if it- if it had been two days later then it would have…” he was getting off track. “Many of my brothers… have… passed… The Miraculous they need to be recollected.”

   Adrien nodded and looked back at the page. “I’ll go… But I made a promise to Marinette, she is my partner, I won’t go without her.”

   The old man didn’t seem happy with the sudden inclusion. He sighed and headed over to the gramophone, his hands typed in the familiar code and the mahogany box revealed itself from the dark interior.

   “I will choose this time,” Fu said.

* * *

   Adrien stuffed the last suitcase into the back of his SUV, he had never appreciated his father’s extensive collection of cars before now. His small little black Mercedes was traded in for a much larger black Mercedes SUV. Marinette handed him her two large suitcases, he let out a sigh and looked at the pile of neatly stacked bags he had packed, he had packed a little too much and she had packed a little too… well… little. He picked up her suitcases and added it to the growing pile.

   “Tell me why do I have to come?” Marinette whined, her arms were wrapped around her to fight off the very early morning cold that was still left over from the extremely cold night before. About an inch of snow was still left on the streets from the late night snowfall but it was still good to see her back on her feet.

   “You don’t have to but I thought you’d like to come,” he explained, “Did you want me to take that?” he asked gesturing to the large bag on her shoulder.

   She shook her head and opened the back door, he heard it hit the leather seat and the door was quickly shut.

   “So how long is the drive?” she queried.

   “Long…”

   “How long?”

   “Very… Long…”

   “Chat!” she whined.

   “Okay, Okay, Okay,” he said waving his hands in front of him, “Six, maybe seven if there’s traffic, besides it’s a nice drive and I plan to stop several times to take in the views.”

   She nodded in agreement and opened the back door again, he frowned at the sound of her ruffling through her bag. He stared at her until he saw what she had been looking for, a large camera was clutched tightly in her hand, it was a professional grade with a large landscape lens.

   “I planned ahead,” she called before she stuffed it back into its case.

   He chuckled and finished packing the rest of his stuff back into the van.

   “But the one thing I don’t understand is why are we leaving so soon after Christmas. It’s only been two days.”

   He shut the back of the car, he checked the road before he opened the front driver side door. Marinette jumped into the passenger side seat next to him.

   “I didn’t have a choice in that respect, Master Fu…” he realised that she didn’t know who he is, “the older man-“

   “The one with that god awful drink?”

   “Yeah that one, it’s his mission.”

   “Oh…” she replied sounding a little surprised, “I didn’t think he liked me much…”

   “He doesn’t trust a lot of people; he just needs time to trust you…”

   She nodded and pulled out her phone to check the time. He revved the engine a little, the car rolled forward and he pulled away from the curb. Marinette waved to her parents as they drove away from the small corner bakery.

   “So where are we going exactly in Montpellier are we going?” she inquired.

   “Not sure yet, I need to find out exactly what the layout in the town is like first,” he explained as they came to a stop at a red light, “Don’t worry Marinette, I have everything planned out.”

   The light turned green and they continued towards their destination.

* * *

   Adrien looked back over at Marinette, her head was resting against the glass window, it rocked slightly as they went over the small bumps in the road. He smiled and leaned over to the glove box, his pranking materials sat snuggling within. He spied a gas station up ahead and a plan formed in his head.

   He pulled the car into the station, he checked his fuel cadge and estimated that he could drive a few more hours before needing to fill it back up. Plagg was still asleep in the back seat curled up on top of Marinette’s discarded scarf, Adrien knew the Kwami wasn’t as antisocial as he made out to be but he didn’t push the small cat to socialise with Marinette, he knew Plagg would eventually open up to her. With a sad smile, he exited the car and accidentally woke Marinette up.

   “Where are we?” she asked through a yawn.

   “Nevers,” he replied, “what do you want,” he asked gesturing to the gas station.

   “Uhh… anything?”

   He shrugged, “Okay then,” he started towards the gas station.

   “Wait!” she called.

   He turned back towards her.

   “What time is it, my phone is flat,” she showed him her dead phone.

   He pulled out his own, the time was displayed proudly on the screen, “Eight-thirty, roughly.”

   She nodded and returned back to her previous sleeping position.

   Entering the store, he grabbed a couple of packets of junk food, as well as two bottles of a soft drink her knew Marinette liked. He walked up to the counter, he snuck a straw off of it and quickly got to work while the cashier rung up his purchase. Years of growing up alone had inspired several pranks that he one day hoped to play on someone and walking back to the car he saw his unsuspecting victim drawing in a large sketchbook.

   He made sure to open the drink before he handed it to her and to act like nothing was wrong, he wasn’t the best actor but Marinette wasn’t exactly paying attention to him when he got back into the car.

   “Here,” he handed her the drink.

   He watched carefully as she took a big long sip but nothing entered the straw. She frowned out of confusion and he did everything he could to swallow the wide smile forming across his face. She tried again before she pulled out the straw and inspected the other end, the small piece of sticky tape that sealed the end of it was clearly noticeable. He didn’t hold his laughter back even when she muttered something under her breath.

   “This means war…” she told him.

   He started the car and pulled out of the gas station to continue on their way.

* * *

   Adrien stared at the long stretches of highway that lay before them.

   “Hey… Marinette?”

   “Hmm?” she replied not looking up from her sketchbook.

   “Did you want to go for a more scenic route, you know… not on a highway?”

   “Up to you,” she shrugged, “I don’t really mind.”

   He nodded and made a plan to stop at the next gas station to refuel on snacks and gas. They were about five hours into their trip and were making good time, they could afford to take the more scenic route to their destination and they would still arrive just a little after midday.

* * *

   Adrien pulled into the empty gas station, there was not a car insight apart from the employees one. He got to work refuelling the car.

   “Hey… Adrien,” it had been a while since she had called him that and it still sounded odd to hear her call him that, “how do you change the settings on this?”

   “On what?” he enquired.

   “The radio, I want to set a station on it.”

   “Oh… it’s in one of the setting panels, the handbook is in the glove box.”

   “Thank you!” she called.

   He chuckled and put the nozzle back. Marinette handed him his wallet out the window.

   The electronic doorbell chimed at his arrival into the store, he picked up a basket and slowly wandered through the store, several more bags of chips and lollies were added to the basket as well as several drinks, they had gone through all the previous items he had bought way too quickly.

   With the gas and items paid for Adrien returned to the car, a flash of pink caught his eye and he cautiously approached only to realise it was Marinette.

   “You ready?” he asked, he wasn’t expecting her to be out of the car.

   “Yeah! Just needed to stretch my legs, hop in I’ll join you in a second.”

   He shrugged and got in, he waited a moment to make sure she hadn’t changed his seat settings as a prank before he turned the car back on. His hands immediately went to cover his ears as the stereo started up but that did little to protect his ears from the extremely loud volume coming from the speakers, bravely one of his hands reached for the sound wheel and he gave it a sharp turn instantly silencing it. He could only just hear Marinette laughing loudly, normally this would be music to his ears but he wasn’t sure he was hearing her correctly because his ears were also ringing; he looked over to see that she was indeed laughing and was also using the car as support because she was laughing so hard. He smiled, he knew then that the little prank war he had started was not going to end quietly, he was going to get her back, he just didn’t know how.

   “Alright, you got me, now get in.”

   She nodded and wiped the tears that had formed in her eyes while she clambered back into the passenger seat, she struggled to hold back the rest of her laughter but she did try to.

   He cleared his throat, “Now I was going to ask you if you wanted to drive along the beach or see more countryside but I guess I’ll decide,” he said trying to be serious, the smile on his face, however, gave him away.

   “There wouldn’t be much of a beach to see,” she replied, “its winter so…”

   “There wouldn’t be snow Marinette.”

   “I know but it just wouldn’t be as nice as it is in summer.”

   “Okay, we could head towards Lyon, maybe see the alps?”

   “You won’t be able to see that much of them. You’ve clearly never been,” she joked.

   He sadly nodded, “It’s why I insisted on driving, I always fly and I thought a road trip would be nice.”

   She smiled at him, “We could see how much longer it would take to pass by them if you want, then decide if it’s worth it, that is of course if we’re not a timeline or something.”

   He shook his head, “No, no timeline just reconnaissance.”

   Her mouth formed an O and she quickly got to typing, she seemed to have an answer in a matter of seconds which furthered his reasoning for asking her to be his partner, “seven hours…” she didn’t seem happy with the result, “not including traffic or snow conditions.”

   “Anywhere else?”

She returned to typing, “how close do you want to get?”

   “Nice scenic shots?” he wasn’t sure; by the way she was explaining things he would take what he could get.

   “We could go to Grenoble,” she offered, “that’s only five hours.”

   “Away?” He asked, he hadn’t expected it to be so far.

   “No… I’ve done this all wrong sorry. If we go right up to the alps that’s an extra four hours, Grenoble is only two, we’ll still see them…”

   “Why do I sense there’s a but?”

   She smiled, “But, I don’t know how much we’ll see, I haven’t been to Grenoble.”

   “Sounds like an excellent way to find out then.”

   Slowly he pulled out of the gas station while Marinette returned the radio back to its original settings, he couldn’t ignore the excitement bubbling away at his insides.

* * *

   Adrien’s excitement grew when he started to see the tops of mountains slowly appearing in the distance.

   “I wish I could spend the week…” he whispered to himself but Marinette heard him.

   “Good luck, its most likely all been booked out for the winter, lots of people enjoy skiing.”

   “Yeah…” he replied dejectedly.

   “Maybe next winter,” She sounded hopeful.

   “Maybe…”


	21. Day Twenty-One: Cold Night

   Marinette stared up at the tall mountains, she had her largest and warmest jacket on but it barely held back the cold, she has always been extremely susceptible to the cold and always hated winter because of it. She could see the beauty in the snow but her body couldn’t stand it.

   Chat was typing away furiously at his keyboard trying to find somewhere to stay, she sighed and looked up to the slowly darkening sky.

   Grenoble was nicer than she had expected, they had filed their day with exploring and visiting museums but she knew exploring the museums would end up with them staying the night but she couldn’t complain, it had been years since she had visited the Alps. She had been ten when she had last visited them and her memories from that time had almost faded.

   The coffee shop they were staying it was nice and warm inside but she needed some fresh air, the cold air coming down from the mountains proved helpful and she was able to clear her mind of growing fears. She watched through the large floor to ceiling windows as Chat ordered another set of drinks for them.

   She sighed again before she re-entered the small café. Chat immediately noticed her return.

   “Hey…” Chat said drawing her attention to him, “I can’t find a hotel here but…”

   She put down her cup fully expecting that they might be spending the night in the back of the SUV, “where is it?”

   “Further up the mountain.”

   She smiled, “Okay…” It was a much better outcome than she had been expecting, “How far?”

   “Two hours,” he explained.

   She nodded and pulled her wallet out to pay for the bill, “Well we better get going then.”

   He nodded in return and packed away his laptop while Marinette snatched up her camera from the table.

* * *

   Her legs hurt from being stuck in the same position again for another two hours but the view into Saint-Gervais was worth it even in the dark, the moonlight bounced off of the snow-capped peaks lighting up the skyline with a soft silver glow. It was truly an enchanting sight to behold, she wished she had asked Chat to stop just so she could take a proper picture of it but the ones she had taken on her phone seemed to do it justice, her parents and Alya had sent her raving reviews on the photos, Alya’s was a little more confused at the sudden pictures and a little more when she realised her best friend was over five hours away.

   She giggled as even more frantic messages flooded in from her friend, she barely looked up from her phone, her feet just carried her slowly behind Chat and her suitcase rolled on behind her. She followed him to the counter then up the stairs to their floor.

   “What are you laughing at?” Chat asked looking over her shoulder.

   “Alya, she… I didn’t tell her I was going on a holiday so…” her voice trailed off as she nervously adjusted her bag strap on her shoulder.

   “She’s having a mini freak out isn’t she.”

   “Yep,” she replied popping the ‘p’. She could see him smiling out of the corner of her eye.

   “Here we are,” he said slipping the room key into the lock.

   He pushed open the door to reveal a small room, it felt extremely like a cabin but it also had a small hint of a modern feel, a single bed sat in the heart of the room up against a timber feature wall, there was a small two seat sofa up against the right wall and on the left there was a set of French doors that lead out onto a small wooden balcony.

   “Sorry its small,” he apologised.

   “Don’t be,” she replied, “How’d you even get this?”

   The room was extremely nice for something they had gotten last minute.

   “Last minute check out?” he shrugged, “Not sure, didn’t ask but we have it for at least two days.”

   She laughed and set her suitcase down on the bed, she started to unpack a little of her clothes.

   “I’m guessing you’ve planned something for the next few days then?”

   He nodded, “I’m going to go grab some dinner, did you want something in particular?”

   She shook her head.

   He nodded and exited the room leaving her alone to unpack, it was only when she was alone did she realise that there was one bed in the room. She had been ignoring the small crush that was forming for him, she wanted to take things slowly, to test the water and not jump into a pool of cold water unprepared.

   She wished she had someone to talk to at that moment just so she could calm her growing worries, she could call Alya but that would only complicate things, even though her best friend had good intentions, Marinette didn’t think her best friend was the person she could talk to about it, she wanted to talk to Mullo, she missed her very much, too much for something so small and for something that had been in her life for only a short while.

   Her hands instinctively went to where the necklace sat, her fingers brushed against the bare spot of her neck. She shook her head, it was not good to dwell on the memories of the past, she pulled her hand away and headed towards the small balcony, the tall snow-capped mountains were the only thing she could see, the small lights from the houses and cars further down the hill they were sat atop looked like fire fires in comparison to them.

   The Mountains still amazed her and she didn’t think she would ever grow bored of looking at them, she wondered if Chat was planning on going skiing tomorrow, she was never any good at skiing so she hoped that he hadn’t planned that, maybe he had planned on sight-seeing, she could do sight-seeing.

   She sighed and went to investigate the bathroom, a warm shower was something she defiantly needed in that moment.

* * *

   Marinette shivered under the many layers of blankets, nothing seemed to keep her warm. Her eyes searched the darkened roof above her, the time on the digital alarm clock displayed the time in a very angry red, one-forty-three am, she yawned and tried to bury her head further into the pillow to force herself to sleep.

   She curled up into a tight ball to try and fight the cold nipping at her toes but her mind wouldn’t let her rest, too many things were swirling around inside her head; mainly about how she was laying, was she too close? Or was she too far? What if she rolled over in the night and accidentally squished him, too many what-ifs for her liking, she was tempted to get up and sleep on the small sofa across from them but he stopped her before she mustered up the courage.

   “Marinette?” Chat asked, his voice was thick with sleep, “Are you okay?”

   She nodded, “I’m- I’m fine,” she replied through chattering teeth, “Go back to sleep.”

   She heard him nod against the pillow and roll over. Arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her into his chest, Marinette felt her body grow warm, whether it was from him or the bright red colour her cheeks had turned she didn’t know, she was just glad that Chat had ignored what she had said in favour of this.

   “You okay now?” he whispered.

   She nodded again and he let out a sigh, his grip around her loosened and soon his soft breathing reached her ears meaning he had already drifted off, she silently laughed at how fast he had fallen back asleep, she wished she could but he had just given her mind a whole heap of other things to worry about.


	22. Day Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four: Sick, Pillows and Blankets, Nap Lap

   Adrien smiled, his feet followed Marinette down the winding woodland trail, they both had their camera’s in hand, he took more scenic shots than she did, years of spending his days behind the camera had led him down that road. He, on occasion, loved the art of photography, many of the photographers he had grown up with had told him that he had a keen eye for a perfect shot but as usual, his father didn’t approve of his own selected hobbies.

   He raised his camera up to take a shot of the tall alps through a bunch of trees that he wanted to know the names of. Marinette paused on the track bellow for him, soft snowflakes fell around him as a winter storm rolled in to dump a fresh set of snow atop the mountains.

   The camera shutter clicked serval times and he quickly caught up with Marinette, they needed to beat the ever darkening clouds above back to the hotel, he could tell already that there was going to be several inches of fresh snow on the ground before they made it back. His hand reached up to rub his bright red nose, the sudden drop in temperature had shocked his system a little and in retaliation, his body decided that it was the perfect time for a runny nose, he just hopped it wasn’t something worse.

* * *

   It was worse, a lot worse. Adrien struggled to keep the little food he had eaten down as his stomach wanted to expel it from his stomach. He couldn’t remember when the last time he had been sick was, he had to have been eleven or younger. He reached over to the small box of tissues that sat on the small bedside table next to him, he felt horrible, his body was sweating heavily, he really wanted to escape the blankets but Marinette forced him back under them. A warm bowl of soup sat next to him, Marinette was going to be a little upset at the sight of it, he knew that much but he couldn’t bring himself to eat the rest of it.

   He groaned and threw the blankets off of him and ran towards the small bathroom, he needed to cool down. He didn’t bother removing any of his clothes as the cold spray of water hit his face cooling his raging fever. He sighed in relief as the water washed over him and rushed down to the drain but he couldn’t stay under the soothing water forever, he stepped out of the shower, water dripped down him, the cold air only seemed to make his situation worse, he could see his shivering frame in the mirror in front of him as well as his heavily sunken eyes, his skin had turned a ghostly shade of white and his bright green emerald eyes had dulled and darken under the extreme lack of sleep he had had.

   Plagg drifted in with a set of fresh clothes for him, he didn’t say a word when Adrien took the clothes from him which he appreciated. His soaked clothes were quickly exchanged for the new clothes; he was starting to feel a little better.

   Slowly Adrien tiptoed back over to the bed, he settled back into a comfortable position but sleep still would not find him.

* * *

   He awoke with a start, something had awoken him, he searched the room before settling on the front door, his eyes strained to see the door open, the moonlight that flooded in through the windows didn’t reach that far and there were no lights out in the corridor. He hadn’t realised that he had fallen asleep, he struggled to pull the discarded blankets back up and over him but his body protested the action.

   “Chaton?” her voice was soft and gently broke the silence filled air, “Are you okay?”

   He wheezed with every breath and his energy had been sapped, his hand reached out to her to get her to move closer and thankfully she did. The mattress dipped beside him as she sat down beside him, her palm met his forehead.

   “You have a fever…” she whispered to no one in particular.

   “I feel horrible,” he told her.

   “You look it too,” she frowned, “Stay here,” she commanded.

   He looked at her confused as she exited the room in a rush. His eyes stayed on the shut door she had walked through; he didn’t even feel his eyes start to grow heavy but they did.

   “Adrien…”

   He shot up in bed, sweat dripped off of him. He reached up and wiped the sweat off of his forehead but Marinette beat him to it with a cold damp towel. She handed him a couple of pills and a cup of water, he looked at her then at the pills, he took a deep breath and downed both pills and the entire cup of water.

   “Lay back down,” she commanded.

   He nodded and laid down while she tucked him in, the heat was unbearable but the feeling of being tucked snuggly in was something he didn’t want to ruin. His eyes fell on Marinette, she had settled down on the wood-backed sofa, a blanket had been carelessly draped over her legs which she had tucked under herself, she had a book in her hands and started reading. He smiled and rolled over in the bed to try and escape the heat when suddenly he felt extremely cold, he tried to bundle up the blankets a little more but it didn’t provide him with any more warmth.

   “Marinette…” he whispered, “I’m- Cold…”

   She frowned and put down her book. Snatching up the spare blankets that sat beside her, she walked over to his bedside and threw them over his balled up form, he warmed up a little bit but the blankets did little to get rid of the cold shiver slowly sneaking its way up his spine, it did hide how much he was shaking. Marinette smiled and returned to her spot on the sofa, she picked up her book and settled back into reading it. Adrien tried to deal with the cold for a while but he only seemed to get colder, he looked back over at Marinette.

   “I- I’m still-“

   She nodded her head before he could finish and got into bed next to him, she still had her book in her hand. She patted her lap for him to lay in it which he did, she adjusted the lamp on the table beside the bed so it was not shining directly into his eyes. He had just settled into her comfortable lap when she started humming a soft tune, her fingers sunk into his messy long blond hair slowly massaging his scalp with her fingernails, the only time she removed them was when she needed to turn the page to a new one.

   He smiled in contentment and for the first time in several hours he felt at peace.


	23. Day Twenty-Five: Puss in Boots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little shorter this one...

   The drive down to Montpelier was the longest she had ever experienced, mainly due to her constantly asking Chat to pull over so that she was sure he was okay and not overdoing it. She had made it clear to him that she was fine with sleeping in the back seat overnight if he didn’t feel like driving the entire distance that day; his sickness had slightly let up in the three days they had stayed in Saint-Gervais but not enough for him to be on the road to recovery in her mind, Him being sick also meant that they missed ringing in the new year. In the end it was worth it, Chat had driven them to the hotel with the most amount of stars he could find and booked a room for two weeks, she knew he would have booked longer if it weren’t for the fact that she needed to get back to the opera house to pick up her classes and requirements for the new year.

 

  Marinette stared up at the ceiling above her on the mattress that was way to firm for her liking. She had her headphones in listening to the playlist her dance instructor had sent her, she was supposed to be getting back into dancing but here she was laying down staring up a boring ceiling.

 

  She tapped her fingers along with the beat when a part she didn’t remember the last time reached her ears, it sounded a bit like someone in a large, puffy winter jacket trying to sneak past which was oddly specific. She shot up and turned her head sideways as she watched Chat slowly tipped toed past her.

 

  She looked at him and raised an eyebrow at his incredibly rugged up appearance. He had a thick heavy winter jacket on as well as a scarf, a beanie, a set of earmuffs and gloves but what stood out was the set of large, heavy, thick winter boots on his feet. He was extremely overdressed for the light powder on the ground outside.

 

  She bit back the laugh that bubbled at the back of her throat and asked him why he was dressed like that. There was no way on planet earth would she let him out of the hotel room while he was still sick.

 

  “Where do you think you’re going?” she questioned.

 

   He froze, he hadn’t even realized he had been seen, slowly he turned to face her, “Marinette-“ he stuttered out, “I- didn’t expect to see you… here…”

 

  She sighed and rolled her eyes, “Chat, you are not going anywhere in your condition.”

 

  He crossed his arms and tried to turn back towards the door but Marinette beat him to it. He sighed and head back to his bed, he took his scarf off then his gloves, beanie and earmuffs. He sat down and crossed his arms, he was trying to act tough but she saw straight through him, he wanted to go but she really didn’t want to see him get worse. She frowned and walked over to him, she placed a hand on his lap, slowly he raised his head to meet her eyes, she gave him a smile and he smiled back at her.

 

  “Well go out later okay?” She promised.

 

  He nodded.

 

  He lifted up his legs and Marinette pulled on the heal of his foot, the boot came loose and she went for the other one. With both shoes gone he leaned back on the bed, she lifted the blankets up and threw them over him and once again tucked him into bed.

 

  “I want you to get better first Adrien…”

 

  “I know… Could- Could you get my laptop please?”

 

  She nodded and retrieved the computer from the round dining room table and handed it to him. His fingers got to work and for the first time in her life she saw the tiny black Kwami that never left Chat’s side, the Kwami draped himself around his neck and when Chat needed something he would retrieve it.

 

  It was entertaining to watch but didn’t help her focus on the music that she was supposed to be memorising the music. She plugged her headphones back in and returned to staring up at the ceiling.


	24. Day Twenty-Six: Fencing

   Adrien stared longingly out the large window, a large heavy blanket was sitting on his shoulders to keep him warm from the cold morning. He had been there for two days and five days away from Paris, he was starting to grow home sick and he was sure Marinette was too. He felt sorry for trapping her by his bed side and for getting sick, his nose still felt stuffy at the thought of food made him sick to his stomach but it Marinette’s eyes he was finally on the road to recovery and he finally was able to roam around the hotel room. He knew it would be a day or so before he was able to reface the world but it felt freeing to stand knowing that he was getting better.

   He headed into the kitchen and filled the coffee maker up with water. He glanced over at the bed, his cheeks flushed red as he stared down at Marinette’s sleeping form. He knew that he was in love with her, he was head over heels in love with her and there was no denying that, the last few days had pushed his feelings for her over the end and there was no going back. He wasn’t used to this feeling, this was all new to him, he was used to being loved but not being in love.

   He pulled his eyes from her peaceful form and grabbed two cups from the cupboard, they had planned to head down to the nearest gym that stocked fencing equipment and he wanted to go early so he wasn’t full of energy when he returned back to his long pages of research.

   The maker clicked behind him and he grabbed it, pouring the dark liquid into two cups, he added milk and two sugars to her cup, three to his own. Plagg grabbed a take away menu and placed it in front of him, the Kwami was up to something. Adrien sighed and picked it up, and he instantly found what the Kwami wanted, one the breakfast menu was a cheese croissant made from camembert.

   “Plagg…”

   “Please,” the cat begged, “it’s not like you haven’t got the money.”

   He sighed again and put the menu into his dressing gown pocket.

   “Later,” he told the Kwami, Plagg cheered and Adrien picked up the two coffee cups.

   He placed them down on the bedside table next to the bed Marinette was sleeping in. Gently he slowly shook her awake, she blinked at him confused and angry, her eyes searched for a clock and she groaned at the early time it displayed, she yawned and stretched before she threw her blanket over her head.

   “Morning,” he said, “I made coffee.”

   “Its early,” she replied, her voice was still gravely from sleep.

   “Your point is?”

   “I need my sleep.”

   “You were the one that stayed up watching TV last night.”

   “I know,” she whined throwing the blankets off.

   She sat up and he handed her her cup of coffee, “Drink up,” he told her, “I want to go early,” she rolled her eyes as she raised the cup to her lips.

* * *

   Adrien tossed her the foil, she caught it and entered her starting position, it was surprising at how fast she had picked up the sport. Master Fu had made it clear that she needed to prove herself to be worthy of a Miraculous, he accepted that she was the one who came up with the plan to defeat the Akuma but he still needed to know that she was ready for the task of taking down a rouge Miraculous wielder.

   “Chat do we have to do this?” she was disinterested with the sport and he had no idea why.

   “Yes,” he replied lunging for her with a simple attack, she quickly parried it with more skill than some of his other opponents.

   She let out a sigh and lifted up her helmet, “I don’t know how this is supposed to help me fight,” she murmured under her breath.

   He lifted up his own mask and gave her a small smile, “You never know,” he offered trying to get her to see the bigger picture.

   She turned her head to the side and shrugged then lunged into her next attack. he of course dodged and placed a hit on her chest. He smiled at her and they reset back to their starting position.

* * *

   Adrien snatched up the towel and wiped away the fresh beads of sweat that dotted his brow. He handed his equipment off to Marinette so she could put them back, he wanted to stay longer but of course both Marinette and his Kwami, Plagg, had talked him into returning back to the hotel. Marinette was still concerned about his health and Plagg reminded him the large amount of research he needed to get back to, the Bear Miraculous still needed to be reclaimed and he wanted to do so before he had to return back to Paris.

   The Villain, Hawkmoth, had not returned to the public eye over the winter break, most likely because he was still planning his next move which scared Adrien. Silence from a looming threat was never any good in his experience, whether it was a building that was supposed to be filled with guards and there were none or terrifying monsters attacking the streets with the promise of more, it left him constantly on guard. His bags still sat packed in the hotel just in case he was called back to his home city to stop the next person Hawkmoth had decided to take advantage of from causing even more damage to the streets and buildings that were only just being rebuilt.

   Adrien pulled himself back into his surroundings as he waited for Marinette to return to his side. He was largely ignored by the other patrons, out of Paris he wasn’t recognised as much, a relief, he hated being followed around by multiple cameras and being in front of camera’s. He smiled when a small group of children caught his eye, they were all equipped in fencing gear and were watching the instructor, they hung of the woman’s every word as she told them what there were going to be learning that day. Memories of his own flashed back to him, he didn’t even notice that Marinette had returned in that time.

   “You okay?” she inquired.

   He jumped slightly at her arrival and Plagg snickered from his hiding spot in Adrien’s shirt.

   “Yeah…” his voice squeaked.

   “You ready to go then?”

   He nodded enthusiastically and went to pick up the gym bag beside him only to find once again she had beaten him to it.

   “Let’s go then.”

* * *

   They sat atop the roof, darkness covered their position, their entrance and exit had been planned, it was a simple smash and grab, the owners were out for a celebratory dinner, he hadn’t planned for that but it was a plus. He and Marinette knew exactly what the Miraculous looked like, it was a necklace with a bear claw charm on it and was somewhere in the house. Marinette was to search drawers, cupboards and jewellery boxes while he went for the two safes located in the house. He extended his baton down and prepared himself to smash the small laundry window.

   He wasn’t sure that the necklace was here, it could have been sold in the thirty years since it had come to France or it could be at the other houses of descendants but it was a start. The suburban neighbourhood was almost silent, only the distance sound of cars going down the nearby major road could be heard.

   “Chat,” Marinette grabbed a hold of his arm, “Adrien, look,” she pointed to a dark figure that had exited the building from the door they had planned to enter through.

   He frowned and ordered her to stay there. Adrien calculated the distance of his jump then leapt into the air, he used the dark figure to break his fall. The person grunted and groaned at the sudden attack as they both fell to the ground. Adrien recovered first and stood up, he didn’t like being beaten to a steal.

   “What the hell!” the person hissed, the backpack they had been holding now sat discarded in the thin grass beside them. Adrien reached down and started riffling through it, he quickly found the Miraculous as well as a number of other jewels, “Hey! That’s-“

   Adrien cut the guy off, “Not yours.”

   The other thief slowly rose to his feet, the guy huffed and puffed in pain. Adrien looked the guy up and down, he was no older that fifteen, he was just a kid. He sighed and pocketed the necklace, the boy went to protest but Adrien threw the bag at him.

   “Go home,” Adrien commanded, “before the owners get back.”

   The boy nodded and took off running. Adrien watched him jump the back fence before he returned to Marinette.

   He pulled the necklace out of his pocket and handed it to her.

   “Job done?” she joked, “We didn’t even lift a finger.”

   He nodded, “Lets go, he triggered the alarm.”

   She handed him back the necklace and waited for him to give the signal for him to jump onto his back. Carefully Adrien navigated his way back to his car, they had parked four blocks away near a nature trail giving them a cover.

   He hadn’t been expecting his research to led to him finding the necklace so quickly but he was glad the two days of solid research had paid off, he could go home now, he could return to his large and comfy bed.


	25. Day Twenty-Seven: Protecting You

   Marinette tied her point shoes, it felt good to be in them, it had been far too long in her mind, she hoped her muscles still remember what she wanted from them: soft, precise movements that made her look like she was a leaf slowly flowing down a river.

   Her instructor stood at the head of the class, the rest of her classmates were getting ready like her, some had arrived early and were waiting eagerly for the class to begin. She was eager too, she wanted to get back into the routine she repeated each year, dance, dance and more dance. Her life had felt incomplete over the winter break without it.

   She stretched her arms then her legs and entered her place in the circle around the instructor. The students around her whispered amongst each other, it had already been over a month and yet, the theft was still the only thing they could talk about. She felt a little guilty about stealing it, her guilt had been slowly eating away at her in the weeks after it, Chat said it was normal and she knew it was far too dangerous to leave it where it was and technically they didn’t steal the Bear Miraculous but it didn’t stop the guilt.

   The instructor tapped her heel drawing everybody’s attention to her, Marinette quickly concentrated on the lesson ahead.

* * *

   Marinette moved her stiff muscles, her gym bag was heavy on her tired shoulders, three hours of back to back dance that she hadn’t prepared for. She wanted to go home to her bed and sleep for a thousand years or maybe a nice warm bath with candles around her, both were good ideas.

   She avoided people as she passed them, she really wanted to get away from the loud and annoying noises of the streets. A loud siren echoed across Paris causing her to freeze in place, an elderly couple around her raised their heads to the sky in a panic, she followed their lead only to find the blue cloudless sky above her was empty of any threat. She wondered what the air raid sirens were warning them about, she wasn’t far from Chat’s apartment and she knew he would have some idea on what is going one. She adjusted her back strap and quickened her pace, people around her were still confused at the air raid siren echoing around them.

   Her phone rang in her pocket and she quickly plucked it from her pocket, Alya was calling, she mentally argued with herself about answering it but one side eventually prevailed, she put the phone back in her pocket and allowed it to ring.

   The people around her started to panic and soon she was pushing against the crowd as they ran in the opposite direction she was headed in. A small panic started to rise as she was pushed further and further away from her target, her breathing quickened as did her heart rate, she stopped fighting and followed the group until she was able to enter a nearby alley.

   Goo, that was the first thing she saw, it was pink and purple, alarm bells rang in her head and she cautiously approached it.

   “Don’t touch it.”

   Marinette spun on her heels and let out a sigh, “Chat…”

   “Hi,” he replied approaching her and wrapping his arms around her for a tight hug.

   “Hi.”

   “How have you been? It’s been…”

   “Almost a month…”

   “Yeah…”

   “I’ve been alright and you?” she asked.

   “Good,” he responded nodding his head, “Could have been better though.”

   She nodded and wondered how they had drifted so far apart in so little time. He glanced back behind him and she felt her heart drop a little.

   “It’s an Akuma, isn’t it?”

   “Yeah, I… I have to go, I’m sorry,” he apologised.

   He started to walk away and she followed, the ears atop his head flicked towards her causing them her to stop.

   “Stay here,” he ordered, glancing back at her. “Please.”

   Marinette rolled her eyes, there was no way she was going to stand there and let him fight the Akuma alone. She waited until he had extended his baton and returned to the fight before she ascended the fire escape to the roof. Her balance atop the roof tiles had improved since the first time she had walked across them, her feet knew where to be and how long she could stand on certain tiles before they started to wobble. She scanned the horizon to see where and what Chat had run towards, she couldn’t hear the screams of terror but she was sure there were some, her mind picked a direction and she headed towards it.

   She didn’t have the assistance of a weapon so when she came to a massive gap across a road in which she could not cross, she had to find another way around and that took several minutes for her to course correct; eventually she was travelling in a different direction than the one she had already picked. She took a second to collect her breath, her eyes landed on the tall and looming Eiffel tower, it would be easier to find him from the tall structure making her wish that she had thought of it first, she let out a sigh and once again scanned the rooftops, a pigeon landed beside her then another and another, she tried to shoo them away, their constant chirping was interrupting her train of thought but the birds didn’t seem to be afraid of her.

   More and more birds gathered on the rooftop until she was surrounded by them, she looked up and saw that all the rooftops around her were covered in the grey birds, she couldn’t even see the rooves anymore. Her eyes widened at the sight of a police officer being carried off by a large flock of them, his hat fell from atop his head and Marinette ran and caught it almost tumbling in the process, she watched the poor man slowly get further and further away from her, she wished she could have done something to help him but without Mullo by her side, there was nothing she could do without injuring herself.

   The pigeons only seemed to grow in number when she returned her sight to them, she had to choose her path carefully through them. The streets below her weren’t much better when she looked down. She looked to the skies and saw a flock hovering off in the distance, her gut told her that that was the Akuma. She looked at the path ahead and sighed even though her muscles protested she forced them to move towards the Akuma, she was sure that she would think of a plan on the way over to it.

   When she got closer she started to see that the Akuma was ordering the birds to attack someone hunched over on the roof, she knew who it was and swallowed her fear, she tossed her bag aside and closed her eyes. In her head she pretended she was still in the suit to try and give her a little bit more strength, she opened her eyes and took off running towards him, towards Chat, her feet stumbled a little, at first she was afraid that she was going to have to avoid the birds but they moved aside for her. She wobbled a little when she ran out of the roof to run across.

   She screamed trying to draw the attention of the Akuma but was ignored, its focus was solely on Chat, she sighed and picked up a loose and cracked piece of a roof tile and threw it at the guy standing atop the large flock of pigeons. Her aim was slightly off, she had been aiming for his arm only to hit him square on the head, she recoiled slightly and slowly backed away, her surprise attack on the Akuma gave enough time for Chat to recover from his sneezing fit and he grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her away from the strange and confusing Akuma to somewhere out of sight.

   “What were you thinking!” he practically yelled at her.

   “I was protecting you!”

   “So was I! I left you in that alley so you wouldn’t get hurt again!”

   She opened her mouth to respond but couldn’t find a rebuttal to his argument so she looked like a fish out of water.

   “Stay here,” he said in anger, he went to leave but she stopped him, “Marinette?” he warned, “Let me go.”

   “No… If you get hurt, there is nothing and no one that can save you and you are allergic to birds,” she pointed out.

   He groaned, “Marinette…”

   “No, we are partners whether or not I have a Miraculous.” She argued.

   He groaned again, “I’m-“

   “Nope, now what do you need me to do?”

   He sighed, “distract him for a second, _prefurrably_ from the streets.”

   She held back her own groan at the sound of his horrible pun but nodded her head.

   She descended a nearby fire escape, quite a lot of people had taken refuge inside leaving a few brave people alone on the streets with the large number of birds.

   The Akuma flew around above her trying to locate Chat, she took a deep breath before attracting the attention of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Hawkmoth back to back Akumatized People.


	26. Day Twenty-Eight: Secrets

   Adrien walked briskly down the street to the pre-designated meeting point, his bartender finally found something about the Lightning bolt girl although he already knew that she was one of the many victims of Hawkmoth but any information was helpful, he still needed to track down the villain. His mask sat in his pocket just in case it was needed, he was growing used to carrying it around with him, Plagg called him silly for doing so but it made him feel safer, he was meeting more and more people apart of the dark world without the safety of the suit, he trusted some people but not all; public places were a good place to meet the first time around, the threat of drawing too much attention was a large enough of a deterrent to most.

   The bartender, Nino, he recalled had promised that meeting in the day time was going to be worth it, Adrien was weary but he trusted that the guy was telling the truth particularly because he was meeting Adrien in secret.

   He pushed against the glass door to the café, it was busy, extremely busy. He loosened his scarf from around his neck and joined the long queue that slowly moved towards the counter. He greeted the barista and ordered a green tea, he scanned the crowd around him as discreetly as possible to make sure he wasn’t being watched.

   He picked up his cup when it was ready and walked to the back of the café to a much quieter area and up a tall set of stairs, he slid the mask in his pocket on and walked towards a small booth in a dark corner of the upper floor. Nino was already there, he was nervous, the constant drumming of his fingers against the wooden table slowly started to get to Adrien, he bit his tongue and sat down in front of him. [[MORE]]

   “Chat Noir,” he greeted in a hushed voice, his green mask hid all of his defining facial structures but Adrien could still tell it was him.

   “We never established what your name was…”

   “Yes… That doesn’t matter, shall we get right to the point then?”

   He nodded and Nino pulled out a large manila folder from a bag that sat beside him, he slid it across the table for him to read. Cautiously he flipped through it but nothing stood out.

   “What is it?” he questioned.

   “My… Significant other is…” he struggled to find a word to describe her, “an amateur detective, she is the one that dug this up. I don’t know how useful it will be but since… Since Hawkmoth appeared, she hasn’t stopped looking.”

   “And this is everything she has found so far?”

   “Yeah,” he replied, “They aren’t the originals unfortunately, I wouldn’t dare hand over those in fear of my own life.”

   Adrien chuckled and continued to read through the pages, he could see the handwritten notes in the margins of printed out pages of web sites, he read one, it detailed a small theory the researcher had, he smiled at how enthusiastic she was about the topic, he suspected that he would get along quite well with her.

   “Anything else?” Adrien asked, the paperwork was going to take several hours to go through and he really wanted to start on it.

   “Yeah, the girl at the bar, she-“

   “Hasn’t been back?” he said cutting him off, Nino looked at him and nodded, “I know, she was looking for me, she was one of Hawkmoth's victims…”

   “Oh…”

   “Don’t sound disappointed, I still owe you something.”

   Nino nodded again and stood up, “I’ll give you more in a couple of weeks, Al-” he cut himself off, “My wife… she’s doing this for fun, maybe her research can help you and your mouse friend.”

   Adrien nodded and watched him leave before he returned to the five-inch-thick stack of paper he had just been handed, it felt like Christmas to him. He could tell already that the notes were incredibly well organised, Plagg shifted in his pocket to see what it was and the Kwami groaned when he realised it was only paper and not cheese.

* * *

   Papers sat scattered around him, he could barely move without running into more and it was a struggle to move them all aside before Natalie could read them. He didn’t know that she had known where his apartment was let alone what floor he was on. She stood awkwardly in the doorway to his living room as he cleaned.

   “Adrien, your father has asked that I-“ she started only for him to cut her off

   “Ask me to move back in. That’s a no Natalie.”

   “He has offered-“

   “Still a no,” he replied cutting her off again, “Is there anything else?”

   “He wants to know how you’ve been but if this is not a good time I can come back, you must be busy with… school work I assume, I will keep this a secret for you, your father won’t be happy…”

   He nodded and she turned to leave, he heard his front door and he collapsed to the floor, his father always wanted him to get his education but only in the fields he wanted him to study. It was frustrating at how much his father still thought he had control over him but Adrien was going to prove him wrong.

* * *

   Hours of pouring over the stack of paperwork he had been given had led him to this, Marinette had agreed to help him in his suspicions.

   Adrien looked at the small box he had found in that small safe all those months ago, the simple Ladybug design had been nothing at first but now… Now he wondered if he had found one of the most powerful Miraculous so long ago without even noticing it. He opened the box and stared down at the small round earrings, he sighed and then handed the box to Marinette, she looked at him and the box in confusion before hesitantly taking it from him. She slowly put them in and they waited, no ball of light, no sudden appearance of a red Kwami, nothing. It wasn’t the Miraculous he had been looking for and it was a relief.

* * *

   Adrien rubbed his eyes, he had awoken to a dark room and he didn’t know why, his eyes shot over to his bedroom window, he stared out it, it was somewhere in the early morning, he could tell by how quiet the streets were. His phone buzzed on the bedside table as a call came through, he groaned and rolled over to answer it.

   “Hello?” he asked, his eyes had caught the time and he wasn’t happy to be awake at four in the morning.

   “Chat… We- We… uh…” Marinette’s voice came through in a panic.

   His eyes drooped closed but he forced them back open, “Did you have a nightmare?”

   “No!” He jumped at the sudden loud volume, “It’s something else… Could you get over here, like right now.”

   He sighed, “Sure…” he replied sounding a little unsure and through a small yawn.

   She whispered a thank you and ended the call. He removed the phone from his ear and stared at the screen. It sounded important but he didn’t like how vague she had been. He stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes as thoughts about what she had been hinting towards swam around in his head before he got out of bed to make himself a cup of coffee to go. Plagg looked annoyed at the lights in the bedroom being turned on, the Kwami yawned and stretched before he settled back into his spot on the spare pillow, Adrien was tempted to wake Plagg but the Kwami could sleep for a few more minutes while he made himself somewhat presentable to the world.

* * *

   His eyes felt heavy, he didn’t like driving to the opposite side of Paris before the sun had peaked its head over the horizon neither did Plagg, not even the promise of cheese would get the Kwami to move so regretfully he called for his transformation, he didn’t like forcing his Kwami into it but sometimes he had to. Clutching his travel mug tightly in his hand he knocked on the small wooden trap door. It opened all most instantly and he was pulled into the warm room bellow.

   It took a second for him to get his bearings in the pink room, he looked at Marinette, she was pointing towards something, he looked to see what it was. Red, floating, large blue eyes, Kwami…


	27. Chapter Twenty-Nine Werecat & Day Thirty Prey/Hunt

   The large prowling creature stalked the streets below, you could only see it when it walked under the beams of white and yellow light the street lights emitted for its fur blended seamlessly into the darkness. Not a single cloud dotted the moonless star-filled sky and it was unclear where the creature had come from, had it escaped from a cage? Or from someone’s nightmare. Where ever it had come from it seemed to be on a mission, it looked left then right for its prey, its long and sharp claws scraped along the concrete pathways, drool seeped from its mouth, its long protruding fangs prevented its mouth from closing. Its tall pointy triangular ears picked up on every little sound around it, from the distant car engines to the fast and ragged breathing of its prey.

   It snarled and its pace quickened, the nose atop its snout twitched in the cold air as its prey’s scent filled its nostrils, it was a trail directly to the frightened animal, the meat had long since spoiled but the thrill of the hunt stayed with the beast. The animal slowly tracked down the street towards the alleyway, it could hear the terrified sniffles of its prey, the creature growled at the edge of the alley and a rush of excitement ran through its blood as the animal let out more scared squeaks.

   The creature rounded the corner, its prey, that only used two of their four legs, slowly backed away in terror. The animal's fur was odd, a mismatch of colour and length; red like blood, black like a moonless night, white like snow and pink like the sky when the sun was setting. The animals head was only half covered in the long black fur that went down towards their shoulders, the rest of their face was pale skin, their eyes were blue like the deep sea. The paws they were standing on were odd too, they had no claws, the fur was small and had some pale skin, the other paws that the animal refused to walk on had no fur either just more of that pale skin.

   Its nose and ears picked up on the scurrying of smaller animals but it ignored those ones, it’s prey was in front of it and the hunt was drawing to a close. The prey slowly backed away from the creature’s sharp teeth in fear, if you looked close enough you would be able to see the thing shaking. The creature growled again and the animal fell to the cold concrete but continued backed away this time using those thin legs they refused to use before.

   The animal let out a cry in fear trying to call the attention of someone or something to help them, “Chat!” Wet tears dripped down their pale face and the creature slowly got closer and closer.

   It slowly backed its prey further and further into the dark alley, eventually, the animal backed its way towards the brick wall, there was nowhere left for the animal to turn and the creature watched the light fade from their eyes. The hut was over, the prey had surrendered and accepted its fate, the creature bared and barked its teeth putting a little bit more fear in the animal before its life was ended.

   The animal let out a final cry, it was more like a plea, “Chat…”

   The creature prepared to lunge for the pale white neck, it could already taste the metallic liquid that was blood. Something quickly drew its attention away from its prey, it growled in anger, it didn’t like being disturbed, it turned and saw another animal that looked similar to its prey, the fur atop this one’s head though was short and a soft golden colour, this animals body was also covered in short fur, it was completely black and rather shiny, a sign of a well-groomed coat and a worthy opponent.

   “Get away from her,” the back coated animal warned slowly approaching, the creature growled and hissed as the animal got closer and closer to its prey.

   The animal hissed back at it and pulled a metal stick from behind its back, a weapon and a threat. The creature lunged and the animal swung the stick like a club and hit the creature into the brick wall. It yelped in pain and struggled to stand up from the attack, it’s prey had tried to fight back and landed a few licks in but not enough to hurt, this animal was stronger, tougher and braver. The creature watched as the threat approached his prey, it was helpless and had to watch it put its paws all over its prey. Forcing the pain aside, the creature stood, it carefully avoided the long silver stick and tried to sneak up on its opponent but the other animal was faster, the silver stick was swung again and the creature’s vision went back.


	28. Day Thirty-One: Supernatural Creature

   Marinette stood stage side and took a deep breath as she waited for her cue, it had taken a lot to get her here, she still didn’t have a lead role but she wasn’t as upset with her background character roll. Chat sat atop the crowd waiting for her to leap her way onto the stage, her cue was his cue. Months of planning had gone into this job and finally, all the pieces had come together. She glanced over past out to the crowd to see the middle-aged woman, a free ticket in her mailbox had worked and the pearl necklace they were after sat around her neck, she was alone in the box.

   The Music swelled and she entered the stage, the start of her dance was a set of simple moves, she flowed like water across the stage, she twirled and turned with expect precision. Her eyes picked up on Chat slowly sneaking up behind the woman, his footsteps were most likely silent and if not the music would have made sure that he was.

   She entered several Pique Turns that led into a fast Seven Fouetté en Tournant, she lost her sight on the crowd and on Chat, she couldn’t act like something else other than a ballet was going on. She focused on her next move and timed the change perfectly into the next steps, she was in perfect sync with her classmates. Her eyes quickly glanced back to the woman, the white necklace was no longer around her neck, she had to bite back a smile that threatened to spread across her face as it was going to throw her out of her intense focus.

   She continued the dance and an older ballerina entered the stage, she was the lead at that moment and Marinette made way her way from her spot on the stage and slowly followed her classmates off stage to catch her breath for a minute before she had to return to the stage to continue the dance.

   A stagehand handed her a plastic water bottle, she drank it desperately while still trying not to ruin the hour worth of makeup on her face. She spotted Chat out of the corner of her eye, he held the necklace up briefly for her to see, a person walked in front of her line of sight of him and he was gone, it was like he had vanished into thin air, she let out a sigh and slowly turned back to the stage, her mind at ease because another Kwami had been returned home. Stealing the jewels never fully sat right with her, Chat had offered to buy them from then on but sometimes a person wouldn’t be easily persuaded by the offer of money and they had to resort to their old ways.

   Her second cue came and she danced her way back to centre stage, she put her soul into each move, it would be her last performance for a while. The ring that always sat on her ring finger had to be removed for the dance, it felt strange not to have it there. The long holiday she and Chat had planned was something she was looking forward to immensely but it wasn’t just a holiday to relieve the stress of the job, there were still Miraculous out there and not all of them had made their way to France.

   After what felt like years of begging on Chat’s part Master Fu had finally allowed her in on the operations to find the supernatural creatures, she had never fully grasped how big of a deal it was until the curtain had been lifted for her. She had been opened to the world of the Miraculous, she had made it a priority to learn all of the Kwami’s name, favourite food and personalities and she did. She loved the magical creatures and couldn’t remember a time where they weren’t in her life.

   The music stopped and the curtain fell ending the dance, she took in a huge gulp of air, her lungs burned a little from the extreme exercise and she wanted to sit down but she had to stay until the end. The entire cast slowly gather on the stage for the bow, the curtain rose for a final time and they bowed as the crowd clapped loudly completely unaware that a heist had gone on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its been a long time coming but this is the end. I still have a lot of ideas for this work so there will be a part two some time in the future.

**Author's Note:**

> Come Follow Me On Tumblrヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ


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